The Pentagon issues a jumbled list of contracts every business day around 5:00PM local time. Below we highlight all of the transactions from December 2017 related to remotely piloted vehicles, commonly known as drones. The U.S. Department of Defense (DOD) spent at least $1,301,715,000 on 14 contracts pertaining to drones during December 2017.
Alessi-Keyes Construction received $14,175,125 for 4000 SF Distributed Communications Ground System, Remote Piloted Aircraft Operations Center, Targeting Intelligence Production Squadron, SCIF, Fort Smith, AR.
Boeing received $8,966,976 for Low Power Laser Demonstrator, Phase 1. This involves integrating & testing a low power laser on a UAV for MDA.
Boeing (Insitu) received $22,728,810 for ScanEagle work supporting NSWC operations out of Bagram, Afghanistan (83%). Some work (27%) in Bingen, WA.
Bravura IT Systems received $233,334,787 for Persistent Surveillance Systems-Tethered (PSS-T) engineering, logistics, operations, and management.
Composite Engineering Inc. received $93,000,000 for Advanced Subscale Aerial Platform systems. These unmanned target aircraft include launchers, ground equipment, and spares.
General Atomics received $16,001,592 for MQ-9 operational flight program software testing, logistics, engineering, tech data, training, drawings, etc. General Atomics received $134,010,380 for block 30 ground control stations.
General Atomics received $94,575,690 for MQ-1C Block Zero contractor logistics services.
General Atomics received $328,801,883 for MQ‐1 and MQ‐9 support & services: core management, logistics, configuration management, technical manual & software maintenance, field service reps, inventory control point management, flight operations support, depot repair, and depot field maintenance. Sole-source.
Leidos Inc. received $35,493,358 for Sea Hunter II - Autonomous Continuous Trail Unmanned Vessel Hull #2.
Northrop Grumman received $12,747,529 to incorporate RQ-5 Hunter engineering change proposal for high definition payloads.
Northrop Grumman received $19,090,748 for MQ-8 systems software and engineering services. Northrop Grumman received $33,479,478 for production & delivery of three MQ-8C, Increment V.
Northrop Grumman received $255,309,325 for LRIP of three MQ-4C, trade studies, and tooling.
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Christian Sorensen, a Newsbud Contributing Author & Analyst, is a U.S. military veteran.
A-RCI = acoustic rapid commercial off-the-shelf
COTS = commercial off-the-shelf
ECP = engineering change proposal
LRIP = low rate initial production
PEO = program executive office, the space where military and civilian officials direct a major acquisition program
SRA = selected restricted availability = implementation of depot-level maintenance and modifications with the goal of updating a ship’s technical and military capabilities
TI = technical insertion
***To avoid competitive bidding, DOD invokes 10 U.S.C. 2304, FAR 6.302, and FAR 8.405-6. DOD uses 15 U.S.C. 638 to avoid competitive bidding when dealing with small businesses. DOD uses CFR 206.302-4 to avoid competitive bidding when dealing with treaties and foreign transactions.