Orbital UAV appoints former Insitu executive and U.S. Army Colonel as Vice President of U.S. operations
Orbital Corporation Ltd (‘Orbital UAV’, ‘the Company’) is pleased to announce the appointment of Keith Hirschman as Vice President of the Company’s U.S. Operations.
With more than three decades of experience in the U.S. Army and defence industry, Mr Hirschman will strengthen the Company’s relationships with key unmanned aircraft system (UAS) customers and drive Orbital UAV’s growth strategy in the USA.
“We are delighted to welcome Keith to the Orbital UAV team at what is a transformational time for this Company,” said Todd Alder, Managing Director and CEO of Orbital UAV.
“Keith’s firsthand experience of managing UAS programs for the U.S. Army, combined with his previous role as Director of Defence Programs for our key customer Insitu, make him the ideal candidate to build on our recent strategic progress and provide increased insight into the operational demands of the end user.”
At Insitu Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of The Boeing Company, Mr Hirschman established the company’s inaugural Program Management Office, standardising defence program management across Insitu’s acquisition and international programs.
Prior to this, Mr Hirschman enjoyed a distinguished military career, holding a number of senior positions including Director, Emerging Technologies Team – part of the U.S. Army’s Rapid Capabilities Office. Here he was responsible for defining and prototyping capabilities to meet operational needs of high strategic risk and opportunity to close capability gaps against rapidly modernising adversaries.
He also served as Product Manager for Tactical Unmanned Aircraft Systems (Shadow UAS), guiding the US$450 million unmanned program through unprecedented growth in combat flight hours and leading 145+ core and deployed personnel in maintaining readiness above 95 per cent.
“I am delighted to join Orbital UAV at a time when the Company is becoming increasingly integral to our customers’ success and making clear progress against its growth strategy,” said Mr Hirschman.
“My and the Company’s immediate focus is on delivering the world’s best integrated propulsion systems to Insitu under our Long Term Agreement. Orbital UAV has a reputation for delivering superior quality and reliability in this field and I am looking forward to enhancing that reputation as we take the business forward.”
Orbital UAV is currently in continuous production of the first propulsion system that falls under its Long Term Agreement with Boeing subsidiary Insitu. Start of production of the second engine is due to begin this quarter.
