AeroVironment awarded $2.6 Million contract from US ally to enhance existing Puma fleet with Puma LE capabilities.

AeroVironment, Inc., a global leader in unmanned aircraft systems (UAS), announced that a U.S. ally and longtime customer awarded the company a firm-fixed-price contract valued at $2,685,057 on February 20, 2020 for AeroVironment’s recently introduced Puma LE. The order also included spares to support the customer’s existing fleet of AeroVironment tactical UAS. The contract award period of performance is one year.

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Puma LE (Picture source: AeroVironment)

“Puma LE is the newest member of our combat-proven family of tactical unmanned aircraft systems,” said Rick Pedigo, vice president of sales and business development for AeroVironment. “Puma LE provides customers with Group 2 UAS endurance capabilities, nearly doubling the time on station of Puma 3, with cost savings and the footprint of a Group 1 unmanned aircraft.”

The AeroVironment Puma LE weighs only 22.5 pounds (10.4 kilograms), is launchable by hand or bungee and provides a dedicated secondary payload bay in addition to its Mantis i45 gimbaled EO/IR sensor. On-board batteries provide 5.5 hours of flight endurance with an operational range of 37.2 miles (60 kilometers) when used with AeroVironment’s Long-Range Tracking Antenna (LRTA). Puma LE’s economical dual-case mission pack contains everything needed to perform two complete 5.5-hour missions with a single aircraft and Ground Control System (GCS). Puma LE utilizes plug and play, interoperable line-replaceable unit (LRU) components that can be shared with other Puma AE aircraft.

AeroVironment’s family of tactical UAS comprises the majority of all unmanned aircraft in the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) inventory and its rapidly growing international customer base numbers more than 45 allied governments.