Unmanned systems drive new contract awards

Unmanned systems continues to prove itself as a lucrative and competitive market segment with almost $4.5 billion in new contracts handed down Thursday.

(April 11 UPDATE: The Defense Department said in its daily contracts listing the award to URS is for range support services and not remotely piloted aircraft services as DoD originally stated).

Unmanned systems continue to prove it is a lucrative and competitive segment of the market as two large contracts dropped this week for support and training involving unmanned systems.

URS Federal won a whopper - $3.6 billion over the next 17 years. The Air Force has tasked the company with providing testing, tactics development, advanced training, and support for Joint and Air Force urgent operational need missions. The contract will support work with remotely piloted aircraft.

Work will take place at three Nevada Air Force facilities: the Nevada Test and Training Range, Creech AFB and Tonopah Test Range Airfield.

URS, which is now part of AECOM, bested three other bidders to win the work.

In the second contract award, Leidos, AASKI Technologies and AAI Corp. are sharing a $900 million Army contract for technical services and field support.

They will compete for task orders to support the Army Product Office Tactical Unmanned Aircraft Systems under the five-year contract.

There were five bidders on the contract

NEXT STORY: DOD's next CIO faces a full plate