AAI Corp. awarded U.S. Army contract for Aerosonde Mk4.7 small UAS.

AAI Corp., doing business as Textron Systems, was awarded a $25,610,000 firm-fixed-price contract for three Aerosonde Mk4.7 systems, initial spare parts, logistics support, new equipment training and two field service representatives.
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Aerosonde Mk4.7 (Picture source: Textron)

Bids were solicited via the internet with one received. Work will be performed in Nigeria, with an estimated completion date of Sept. 30, 2021. Fiscal 2019 overseas contingency operations, defense funds in the amount of $25,610,000 were obligated at the time of the award. U.S. Army Contracting Command, Aberdeen Proving Ground, Maryland, is the contracting activity.

Designed for expeditionary land- and sea-based operations (covert operation, with negligible visual and auditory signature) and equipped for simultaneous day/night full-motion video, communications relay, signals intelligence and a customer-selected payload in a single flight, Textron Systems' Aerosonde Small Unmanned Aircraft System (SUAS) delivers reliable, multi-mission performance in a class by itself. It is field-proven with more than 300,000 flight hours, including desert heat and Arctic cold. The system is powered by a purpose-built Lycoming EL-005 heavy-fuel engine for benchmark-setting reliability. The Aerosonde has a 140 km (75 nm) range.

Aerosonde Mk4.7 (Picture source: Textron)