** Shares of drone technology firm Red Cat Holdings RCAT.O soar 40.5% Weds to $6.66, over 3-yr high, a day after U.S. Army contract win

** RCAT shares on course for biggest one-day pct gain since Mar 14, 2022

** San Juan, Puerto Rico-based firm said mid afternoon on Tues its subsidiary Teal Drones selected as production provider for U.S. Army's Short Range Reconnaissance $(SRR.AU)$ Program

** Announcement made after test and evaluation process conducted by the Army Project Management Office for Uncrewed Aircraft Systems, the Army Maneuver Battle Lab, the Army Test and Evaluation Command, and the Army Operational Test Center

** Teal's next generation uncrewed aerial systems (sUAS), named Black Widow and WEB, selected based on soldier feedback, technical performance, volume manufacturability and cost, George Matus, Teal founder and Red Cat CTO said in statement

** Priority is to begin ramping production to meet Army’s current acquisition objective of 5,880 systems, which is subject to change over the 5 year period of performance, RCAT said

** In other co news, Palladyne AI Corp PDYN.O, developer of artificial intelligence software for robotic platforms in commercial and defense sectors, announced expanded partnership with RCAT and Teal

** With move on Weds, RCAT shares up ~650% YTD, giving co market cap of roughly $520 mln, per LSEG data

(Lance Tupper is a Reuters market analyst. The views expressed are his own)

((lance.tupper.thomsonreuters.com@reuters.net lance.tupper@tr.com 1-646-279-6380))