FLIR Books $70M in Military Ground Robot Orders; Tom Frost Quoted

Four U.S. military branches have placed orders worth more than $70 million for FLIR Systems‘ (Nasdaq: FLIR) Centaur ground robots and associated equipment.

The Army, Navy, Air Force and Marine Corps ordered around 600 units of the medium-sized Centaur unmanned ground vehicle intended for explosive ordnance disposal missions, FLIR said Monday.

Consequently, the Army awarded a $31.6 million increase to the company’s Man Transportable Robot System Increment II contract, bringing the potential total value to $190 million.

Centaur is designed to help military operators disarm mines, improvised explosive devices and unexploded bombs. The 160-pound, Interoperability Profile-compliant system can accommodate payloads such as sensor technology to perform chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear threat defense missions.

Tom Frost, vice president of FLIR’s unmanned and integrated solutions unit, said high demand for the multipurpose robotic platform reflects its usefulness to military EOD teams that perform hazardous operations.

The Army originally tapped Centaur developer Endeavor Robotics as the midsize robot supplier to the MTRS Increment II program in 2017.

FLIR acquired Endeavor Robotics from Arlington Capital Partners in 2019 and has supplied the UGV platform to military customers since then.

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