US Navy buys Linux to guide drone fleet

The US Navy has signed off on a $27,883,883 contract from military contractor Raytheon to install Linux ground control software for its fleet of vertical take-off and landing (VTOL) drones.

The contract covers the Naval Air Station at Patuxent River in Maryland, which has already spent $5,175,075 beginning to install Linux systems. The no-bid contract was awarded to finish the work and get the Navy's drone fleet fully operational using a Linux backbone.

Complete Story

Related Stories:

• US Navy Acquisitions Site Uses Open Source CMS(Nov 11, 2007)
• The Register: US Navy Carrier to Adopt Win2K Infrastructure(Jul 15, 2000)
• Linux Journal: Linux in Government: OSS in the US Navy?(Jan 24, 2005)
• ZDNet: Navy to Draft Linux-Powered Macs(Aug 07, 2003)
• Open Source: Why Military Forces Should Use Linux(Oct 10, 2011)