The Army has selected Griffon Aerospace, Northrop Grumman
[NOC], Sierra Nevada Corporation and Textron Systems [TXT] to continue on its rapid prototyping effort to inform its search for an enduring Shadow drone replacement, the service said Wednesday.
AeroVironment [AVAV] was the only firm previously selected for the Future Tactical UAS (FTUAS) program of record prototype campaign not to be awarded an option agreement for the next phase of the effort.
The Army in February announced the four firms and AeroVironment were selected for the prototyping effort to inform FTUAS, with each working under prototyping agreements potentially ranging from $1 million to $25 million based on how far each vendor “progresses through the base and option periods” (Defense Daily, Feb. 28).
The Army’s Program Executive Office-Aviation said the base period included evaluating the five vendors’ FTUAS submission for performance, cost, schedule, risk and their approach to Modular Open Systems Architecture (MOSA).
“During the next option periods, [the program office] will evaluate the four vendors on the Preliminary Design Review, the Critical Design Review, flight demonstrations, and third-party MOSA verification activities,” PEO Aviation said in a statement.
Following the design reviews, the Army has said selected vendors remaining in the program will conduct flight demonstrations with their offerings.
In the fourth option period, the remaining vendors will be tasked with each delivering “four air vehicles, mission system packages, payload packages, ground controllers, and two OTM controllers, all required maintenance tools and manuals, and all necessary ground support equipment for qualification testing and operational assessment,” the Army has said previously.
While AeroVironment was not awarded an option agreement to continue on the prototyping effort, the Army previously selected the company’s JUMP 20 drone for a FTUAS Inc. 1 effort to meet an immediate operational need and inform requirements for the eventual enduring capability (Defense Daily, Aug. 19 2022).
Under the $8 million FTUAS Inc. 1 deal, AeroVironment was tasked with delivering one JUMP 20 system consisting of six air vehicles, ground data terminals and ground control stations, with options for the Army to potentially procure seven additional systems.
The prototyping campaign for the FTUAS program of record, previously called FTUAS Inc. 2, is running in parallel with the Inc. 1 effort.
The Army has said FTUAS aims to replace the Textron-built Shadow drone with a “vertical takeoff and landing (VTOL), runway-independent, reduced acoustic signature aircraft that can be transported organically while providing commanders with ‘on the move’ reconnaissance, surveillance, and target acquisition capabilities.