Black Widow product profile
Black Widow is Teal Drones short-range reconnaissance drone under Red Cat. It is a U.S.-manufactured, field-repairable ISR platform for defense and security users that need backpackable aerial surveillance, modular payloads and tactical operation.
Facts
- Company: Red Cat
- Product type: UAV
- Status: commercial
- Website: https://tealdrones.com/black-widow/
Profile sections
- Summary
- Overview
- Market context
- Audience
- Workflow
- Capability
- Deployment environment
- Positioning tags
- Specifications
- Tags
- Timeline / Research
- Operations Claims / Customers and deployments
- Supply / Components
- Comparable Systems
- Sources
Summary
Black Widow is Teal Drones short-range reconnaissance drone under Red Cat. It is a U. S. -manufactured, field-repairable ISR platform for defense and security users that need backpackable aerial surveillance, modular payloads and tactical operation.
Overview
Black Widow is Teal Drones short-range reconnaissance drone under Red Cat. It is a U. S. -manufactured, field-repairable ISR platform for defense and security users that need backpackable aerial surveillance, modular payloads and tactical operation.
Market context
Black Widow is a Group 1 SRR quadcopter at 4.
- Target environment: Defence operational environments, tactical field sites and public safety operational areas.
- Workflow context: Short-range reconnaissance, tactical ISR, public safety monitoring and situational awareness for small-unit operations.
- Customer context: Defence customers, public safety agencies and tactical ISR units.
- Deployment model: Deployed defence product with active procurement programs.
- Commercial maturity: Deployed small-UAS platform with defence and public safety adoption.
- Adoption constraints: Defence procurement cycles and export regulations. Short-range design limits operational radius relative to larger UAVs.
- Market position: Red Cat's flagship small-UAS platform and a key trusted-drone program reference.
- Adjacent products: PDW C100, tactical ISR small UAS
Workflow
Short-range reconnaissance, tactical ISR, public safety monitoring and situational awareness for small-unit operations.
Capability
Remote operation
Deployment environment
Defence operational environments, tactical field sites and public safety operational areas.
Positioning tags
- Audience: Defense
- Workflow: Short-range reconnaissance, tactical ISR, public safety monitoring and situational awareness for small-unit operations.
- Capability: Remote operation
- Deployment environment: Defence operational environments, tactical field sites and public safety operational areas.
Specifications
- Flight Time: 50+ minutes
- Speed: 13 m/s / 29 mph
- Range: 5 miles / 8 km
- Camera System: EO/IR Hadron 640R+ with mechanical stabilization and EIS; 64 MP EO sensor and Boson+ 640 radiometric IR sensor
- Navigation: Civilian GNSS, M/Y-Code, and Dual Band L1/L2 GPS module options
- Task Scope: Short-range reconnaissance and tactical ISR
- Operational Role: Blue UAS tactical reconnaissance drone for defense and government users
- Weight Kg: 1.93 kg
Tags
- Peer Group: Tactical ISR UAV
- Workflow: Drone ISR
- Capability: Remote operation
- Deployment Environment: Defence operational environment
- Stack Layer: Finished robot platform
- Commercial Stage: Deployed platform
- Market Signal: Defence procurement signal
Timeline / Research
- 2026-05-21 - Contract Award - Red Cat to deliver Black Widow drone systems under Japan Ministry of Defense contract - Red Cat issued a corrected release for its Japan Ministry of Defense / JGSDF Black Widow contract.
- 2026-04-02 - Contract Award - Red Cat secures Black Widow orders from NATO ally - A NATO ally selected Red Cat's Black Widow sUAS through a competitive tender in March 2026.
- 2026-02-02 - Contract Award - Red Cat secures Black Widow orders from Asia-Pacific ally - An unnamed Asia-Pacific ally selected Red Cat's Black Widow sUAS through a competitive tender in December 2025.
- 2025-10-27 - Capability - Red Cat completes Palantir VNav flight test on Black Widow - Red Cat announced successful flight testing of Palantir Visual Navigation software on the Black Widow drone.
- 2025-10-14 - Partnership - Redwire and Red Cat pair Black Widow with Stalker for Army echelon concept - Redwire and Red Cat announced an integration concept pairing Red Cat's Black Widow sUAS with Edge Autonomy's Stalke…
- 2025-09-11 - Regulatory - Red Cat Black Widow approved for NATO NSPA catalogue - The designation allows NATO member nations and eligible partners to procure Black Widow through NSPA-managed channels.
- 2025-02-24 - Award - Black Widow selected in Blue UAS Refresh - Red Cat announced that Teal's Black Widow drone was selected as a winner of the Blue UAS Refresh.
- 2025-02-24 - Regulatory - Red Cat Black Widow and Edge 130 selected as Blue UAS Refresh winners - Teal's Black Widow and FlightWave's Edge 130 were selected as winners of the DIU Blue UAS Refresh.
- 2024-12-16 - Partnership - Red Cat partners with Palantir for Black Widow visual navigation and Warp Speed - Red Cat partnered with Palantir to integrate Visual Navigation software into Black Widow drones.
- 2024-11-19 - Contract Award - Red Cat wins U.S. Army Short Range Reconnaissance Program of Record selection - Red Cat's next-generation Teal system was selected as the U.S. Army's Program of Record Short Range Reconnais…
- 2024-10-14 - Product Launch - Red Cat introduces ARACHNID family of small ISR and precision-strike systems at AUSA 2024 - Red Cat introduced the ARACHNID family of small ISR and precision-strike systems at AUSA 2024.
Operations Claims / Customers and deployments
- Black Widow System Contract - Black Widow drone systems under Japan MoD contract - 2026-05-21 - Japan Ministry of Defense / JGSDF - military small-UAS operations - Red Cat said it would deliver Black Widow drone systems…
- Black Widow Order Status - Black Widow drone orders from NATO ally - 2026-04-02 - NATO ally - defense UAS - Red Cat secured new Black Widow drone orders from a NATO ally.
- Customer Order - Black Widow drone orders from Asia-Pacific ally - 2026-02-02 - Asia-Pacific ally - military small-UAS operations - Red Cat secured new Black Widow sUAS orders from an unnamed Asia-Pacific ally after a c…
Supply / Components
- Black Widow - Eo Ir Payload - Perception - Teledyne FLIR - Teledyne FLIR Hadron 640R+ EO/IR payloads are integrated on Red Cat Black Widow - source: tealdrones.com
- Black Widow - Mesh Radio Datalink - Communications - Doodle Labs - Doodle Labs Helix Mesh Rider radios are used in Red Cat Black Widow under Army SRR Tranche 2 - source: doodlelabs.com
- Black Widow - System On Module - Compute & Control - Lantronix - Lantronix supplies Qualcomm-based SOM technology used in Red Cat Black Widow for edge AI workloads - source: lantronix.com
Comparable Systems
- AR3 EVO - TEKEVER - UAV
- AR5 - TEKEVER - UAV
- Bayraktar TB2 - Baykar - UAV
- AM - PDW - UAV
- ZY-E4 - Beijing Zhuoyi Intelligent - UAV
- Puma 3 AE - AeroVironment - UAV
- VAPOR 55 MX - AeroVironment - UAV
- Teal 2 - Red Cat - UAV
Black Widow canonical Korthos profile