AAI/ Textron UAS Contracts(our engines) Could be worth $1.5 billion U.S. Chooses Aerosonde, Other UAVs for ISR Services AIN Defense Perspective » March 16, 2012 by Bill Carey
The U.S. Navy and Special Operations Command have selected the Aerosonde UAS provided by AAI Unmanned Aircraft Systems under two recent intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) services contracts. March 16, 2012, 2:03 PM The U.S. military has awarded contracts for UAVs to perform intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) services potentially worth nearly $1.5 billion. The main beneficiary appears to be AAI Unmanned Aircraft Systems, which proposed the Australian-built Aerosonde small unmanned aircraft system.
The Pentagon announced March 5 that AAI, a Textron Systems subsidiary based in Maryland, was awarded a three-year indefinite-delivery, indefinite-quantity (IDIQ) contract worth up to $600 million for Special Operations Command’s Mid-Endurance UAS II program. The contractor-owned platform to be provided was not disclosed, but has been reported as an Aerosonde-G variant. SOCOM currently uses the Boeing-Insitu ScanEagle under a $250 million ISR services contract awarded in 2009.
Naval Air Systems Command (Navair) said February 29 that it awarded IDIQ multiple award contracts (MAC) worth up to $874 million over five years to AAI, Insitu and CSC. The command will place task orders against the contracts for the Aerosonde, the ScanEagle or CSC’s offer of the T-20, a fixed-wing aircraft manufactured by Arcturas UAV of Rohnert Park, Calif. Navair said tasks performed under the MAC “will require the contractors to provide 24/7 ISR services,” including planning, certification, installation, deployment, logistics, maintenance and flying activities.
AAI also provides the RQ-7 Shadow to the Marine Corps, which is evaluating an armed version, as well as to the U.S., Australian and Swedish armies. Insitu originally developed the Aerosonde in the 1990s with funding from the U.S. Office of Naval Research. It is now manufactured by AAI’s Aerosonde subsidiary near Melbourne, Australia. The air vehicle is catapult-launched and has a maximum takeoff weight of 39 or 55 pounds depending on two engine types, with endurance of 10 or more hours with electro-optic/infrared and laser-pointer payload.
ScanEagle is also catapult-launched, with a maximum takeoff weight of 48.5 pounds and endurance of up to 15 hours. The aircraft has a dual-bay configuration for sensors and can carry the NanoSAR synthetic aperture radar for broad area surveillance. It has been operated by the U.S. Navy and Marines as well as the Australian Army and Canadian Forces.
In July 2010, Insitu was selected to provide its larger Integrator UAS for the Marines’ RQ-21A small tactical UAS (STUAS) requirement for up to 56 systems. The company delivered two early operational capability (EOC) systems, each including four aircraft, a ground control station and launch and recovery systems, to Navair and to the Marine Corps Air Ground Combat Center at Twentynine Palms, Calif., earlier this year. The Marines ordered the EOC systems following an initial operational assessment at Yuma Proving Grounds, Ariz., early last year. A second STUAS operational assessment is planned for the end of this year, supporting a low-rate initial production decision.
New names, new contract structures alter UAS market By Defense Systems Staff Mar 16, 2012 A number of new companies are entering the unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) market with the goal of landing business with a Defense Department eager to employ the drones with improved capabilities for crucial reconnaissance missions in a time of reduced budgets, reports Aviation Week.
A good illustration of the trend is the competition among three companies for sea- and land-based intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) opportunities with the Navy through an $874 million indefinite-delivery, indefinite-quantity contract that the Defense Department announced in February.
The way the Navy's ISR contract is structured, AAI, Boeing Insitu and CSC will compete against each other for individual task orders. While AAI and Insitu have considerable experience designing unmanned aircraft, IT services giant CSC is a newcomer to the sector.
Insitu won the first task order under the Navy's new ISR contract to furnish its ScanEagle UAS for sea-based services, an industry source told Aviation Week. For its part, AAI has landed a contract potentially worth $600 million to provide the Special Operations Command with its Aerosonde UAS.
Meanwhile, CSC has qualified to furnish land-based services to the Navy with its Arcturus UAV T-50, but has not yet won a specific task order, the story said.
CSC made a move to enter the ISR services market following its acquisition in 2010 of CenTauri Solutions, which had expertise integrating ISR sensors on the Scheibel S-100 unmanned helicopter for the Joint IED Defeat Organization's Yellow Jacket program.
The Navy's ISR contract also illustrates a key trend in the military's acquisition strategy as it relates to unmanned aircraft, industry officials told Aviation Week. That trend is the adoption of a fee-for-service approach which allows a military service to avoid being too dependent on any one UAS manufacturer.
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