U.S. Army bets $500 million on AeroVironment’s drone shield
AeroVironment Inc. has been awarded a $500 million U.S. Army contract for commercial counter-drone systems, Qazinform News Agency reports.
According to the U.S. Department of War, the California-based company received a firm-fixed-price contract for the procurement of commercial counter-unmanned aerial systems and counter small-unmanned aerial systems capabilities.
Work locations and funding will be determined with each order. The estimated completion date is June 29, 2029. The Army Contracting Command at Detroit Arsenal, Michigan, is the contracting activity.
The award was the largest contract listed by the Pentagon for July 1. Other major contracts included a $400 million Defense Logistics Agency contract awarded to Cleveland-Cliffs Steel Corp. for grain oriented electrical steel and a $347.5 million U.S. Army contract awarded to Lockheed Martin Missile and Fire Control for the development, fabrication and testing of improvements to prototype air and missile defense systems.
Lockheed Martin also received a separate $35.8 million Army contract for the Advanced Capability-3 Software Task.
In the Navy sector, StratasCorp Technologies was awarded a $99 million bridge contract for continued command, control, communications and computers support for Military Sealift Command’s fleet of ships.
Earlier, Qazinform News Agency reported that the U.S. Department of War had released a third batch of declassified files on Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena, or UAP, as part of the Presidential Unsealing and Reporting System for UAP Encounters initiative.