AAI gets Army Guard training deal

AAI Corp. will provide simulators and other training aids and applications to Army National Guard units to help them operate unmanned aircraft systems under a four-year, $31 million contract.

Under the contract, AAI will provide simulators and multimedia instruction for National Guard operation of RQ-7B Shadow Tactical Unmanned Aircraft Systems.

"Our Shadow TADSS training suites will help National Guard Warfighters increase readiness by enabling them to train without dedicated airspace and operational equipment at armories and Regional Flight Training Centers," AAI Vice President of Training Bob Peters said in a news release.

AAI's team includes L-3 Link Simulation and Training of Arlington, Texas; Engineering and Computer Simulations of Orlando, Fla.; MTS Technologies Inc. of Arlington, Va.; and CAE USA of Tampa, Fla.

AAI, based in Hunt Valley, Md., is a unit of Textron Systems Inc., a provider of training aids, devices, simulators and simulations. Textron ranks No. 72 on Washington Technology's 2008 Top 100 list of the largest federal government prime contractors.