Spc. Jeremy Squirres of Company A, 101st Military Intelligence Battalion, 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 1st Infantry Division, prepares a Shadow 200 Unmanned Aerial Vehicle for launch at Forward Operating Base Warhorse, Iraq. The Department of Defense announced Thursday that AAI has been given a $97.1 million contract for the drone, which is used for reconnaissance, surveillance, and other activities. (Image: Spc. James B. Smith Jr./U.S. Army)
Textron’s AAI Corporation was awarded a $97.1 million modification to an Army contract to produce the Shadow Tactical Unmanned Aircraft System tactical data link retrofit, the U.S. Department of Defense announced Wednesday.
The Army and Marine Corps use the Shadow drone to conduct reconnaissance, surveillance, targeting, and assessment activities. The Army uses the RQ-7 variation of the Shadow, which Textron claims, “enables brigade commanders to see, understand, and act decisively when time is critical.” The aircraft is able to spot targets from as far as 125 kilometers, or roughly 78 miles away.
Textron will perform the work in Hunt Valley, Md., and is expected to complete the job on Oct. 31, 2018.
Also, Raytheon Integrated Defense Systems will upgrade four Patriot radars to an improved configuration under a $92.9 million Army contract. The Army only solicited Raytheon for the firm-fixed-price contract. The work will be conducted in Andover, Mass., and should be finished on Nov. 30, 2018.
Leidos has been awarded a $17.8 million Air Force contract to create a portable system for finding and identifying small amounts of chemicals located on the surface of actively used infrared spectroscopes at a 30-meter range. The Air Force received 17 offers for the cost-plus-fixed-fee contract. More than $3.5 million in fiscal 2015 research and development funds were assigned with the award. The labor will be conducted in Reston, Va., and should be finished by Oct. 3, 2020.
Northrop Grumman has been given an $11.7 million Air Force contract for Large Aircraft Infrared Countermeasures, or LAIRCM, to be equipped on Indian Head of State aircraft. The firm-fixed-price, cost-plus-fixed-fee contract was a sole-source acquisition. The labor will be conducted in India, and should be finished by Jan. 31, 2020.
X Corp Solutions was awarded a five-year contract worth up to $50 million for security and counterintelligence work benefitting the Defense Threat Reduction Agency & USSTRACTCOM Center for Combating WMD & Standing Joint Force Headquarters-Elimination. The work will be conducted at DTRA facilities throughout the U.S. and at the DTRA facility in Kaiserslautern, Germany. All work under the firm-fixed-price, indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contract is expected to be finished on Feb. 28, 2021.
Another Raytheon subsidiary, Raytheon Technical Services, was awarded a $9.1 million Navy contract for engineering, repair, and other work to improve the USS Abraham Lincoln’s (CVN 72) NATO Seasparrow Surface Missile System. None of the funds from the cost-plus-fixed-fee basic ordering agreement will expire this year. The agreement was not competitively procured. The majority of the work—70 percent—will be conducted in Yorktown, Va., while the remaining labor will take place in Norfolk, Va. The labor should be finished by February 2017.
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