Altavian, Inc., announced they were awarded a $250MM Indefinite Delivery, Indefinite Quantity contract with the US Army.
With this award, Altavian now supports the largest small UAS program in the world. It exists under the Program Executive Office Aviation, Products Office for Tactical Unmanned Aircraft (TUAS),
The US Army Family of Systems, Unmanned Aircraft Systems (FoSUAS) includes the RQ-11, the RQ-20. It supports control and communications equipment, and other technologies fielded over the contract period of performance.
All systems are for a single, dismounted war-fighter. The design enables the individual to carry, assemble, and deploy the system for immediate over-the-hill surveillance and reconnaissance.
Altavian contract award
Altavian supports the mission of the Army to provide critical, real-time intelligence for warfighter protection and extended operational reach.
“The entire Altavian team is proud to be supporting our warfighters," said John Perry, CEO of Altavian. "It is part of our mission to design and build incredible technology. Knowing that it is at work in service of those who defend the United States is our highest honor. We are committed to meeting the challenges of this contract and accelerating innovation in the US Army UAS capabilities.”
Under this new contract, Altavian is in competition to provide quality components to sustain the FoSUAS fleet. It is also competing to provide upgrade offerings which increase capability, resiliency, and cost-effectiveness of the fleet.
New offerings include upgraded avionics and radios with increased frequency options. Plus, a handheld ground control station (H-GCS). Altavian continues to supply RQ-11 and RQ-20 direct replacement parts for the Government.
“We are proud to continue to bring competition to Group I [under 20 lbs] UAS.” said Thomas Rambo, co-founder of Altavian. “Our prior efforts were successful in breaking vendor lock on non-integrated components such as composite structures and ancillary parts. This new contract brings the opportunity to open the rest of the system (flight control, radio, payloads, and ground control) for greater integration. All the technologies that we are proposing for this contract embrace the US DoD’s Open Systems Architecture objectives and by adopting this technology will ensure the continued sustainment, upgradeability, and interoperability of Group I UAS for years to come.”
This contract has a base award period of five years and is the primary acquisition method for Group I UAS in the Army. Altavian performed sucessfully on the predecessor contract since 2012.
