The 2nd contract below is new to me. It may be to re-power the RQ-7B Shadow's with the more powerful Orbital Heavy Fuel Engines.
AAI Gets $600M Aerosonde Order from US Special Forces Command Posted on March 7, 2012 by The Editor
US Special Forces Command (SOCOM) selected the AAI Aerosonde to provide intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) services. The mid-endurance unmanned air systems (MEUAS) award, worth up to $600 million over time, will see AAI operate and maintain the small unmanned aircraft on SOCOM’s behalf.
Textron, AAI’s parent company, declined to provide additional details, including aircraft type and payloads. However, AAI officials told Flightglobal in January of their intent to bid the contract with a revamped version of the Aerosonde Mk 4.7.
The modified Aerosonde, known internally as ‘Aerosonde-G,’ weighs 34kg [75lb] and includes a heavy fuel engine with significantly increased power. The aircraft uses the same ground control station as the RQ-7, a system also built by AAI that is widely operated throughout US ground forces.
Aerosonde and two others were selected to fulfill the US Navy’s ISR services contract, a similar contractor-owned, contractor-operated contract worth up to $874 million.
AAI Gets US Army $180M Shadow Support Contract Posted on March 16, 2012 by The Editor
AAI Corp., Hunt Valley, Md., was awarded an $180,900,000 cost-plus-incentive-fee contract.
The award will provide for the sustainment services in support of the RQ-7B Shadow unmanned aircraft systems. Work will be performed in Hunt Valley, Md., Afghanistan and Australia with an estimated completion date of Oct. 31, 2012. One bid was solicited, with one bid received. The U.S. Army Contracting Command, Redstone Arsenal, Ala., is the contracting activity (W58RGZ-12-C-0011).
U.S. Chooses Aerosonde, Other UAVs for ISR Services
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.
March 16, 2012, 2:03 PM Link to the original site
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