The Army earlier this month awarded Leonardo DRS a $40 million task order to provide its mobile counter-small drone solution to two divisions, an award that builds off a previous $189 million contract the service awarded the company in 2020 for the Mobile-Low, Slow, Small Unmanned Aircraft System Integrated Defeat Systems (M-LIDS).
Deliveries of the M-LIDS under the latest task order will begin in 2024, Ed House, director of business development of the Leonardo DRS Land Systems line of business, told Defense Daily this week at the Association of the U.S. Army’s annual exposition.
Leonardo DRS in 2017 received nearly $60 million in contracts for M-LIDS. Then, in July 2020, the Army awarded the company a potential five-year $189 million contract indefinite-delivery, indefinite-quantity (ID/IQ) contract for further work under the program. The new task order is the largest under the ID/IQ.
Under the ID/IQ contract, Leonardo DRS received a $6.1 million task order to provide support for fielded systems. Before the new task order, issued on Oct. 5, the company had delivered the counter-small unmanned aircraft systems (C-UAS) and associated support and training, a small number of which are deployed to protect U.S. forces in the Middle East and Eastern Europe.
Army Chief of Staff Gen. James McConville is making the purchase of C-UAS a priority. House said on Oct. 12 the Army chief wants deliveries of M-LIDS and other C-UAS accelerated to nine divisions.
The M-LIDS is provided through a two-vehicle configuration based on the mine-resistant, ambush-protected all-terrain vehicle (M-ATV) that was manufactured by Oshkosh Corp. [OSK]. One truck has a non-kinetic defeat capability and the other a radar and kinetic defeat capability.
The system includes the Reconfigurable Integrated-weapons Platform turret supplied by Moog [MOG.A], Northrop Grumman’s [NOC] XM914 30mm gun, an electronic warfare (EW) system supplied by SRC Inc. for non-kinetic defeat, a launcher and Coyote unmanned aircraft systems with an advanced seeker and warhead from Raytheon Technologies [RTX], a Raytheon Ku-720 radar, and a remote viewing target acquisition system electro-optic and infrared capability built by Leonardo DRS.
The M-LIDS is integrated with the Army’s network for ground-to-air engagements, called Forward Area Air Defense Command and Control, or FAAD C2, which is a Northrop Grumman solution.
At the AUSA show, Leonardo DRS displayed its mobile C-UAS package on an Army Stryker combat vehicle, which would reduce the current footprint from two vehicles to one, reducing complexity and cost.
In September, the company did an engineering live-fire test of its single vehicle C-UAS Stryker at the Big Sandy range in Arizona to ensure the system communicated with FAAD C2, House said. The Coyote system wasn’t fired at Big Sandy, which is a commercial range, due to restrictions, House said. The EW non-kinetic defeat system, supplied by Sierra Nevada Corp. (SNC) for the single C-UAS Stryker, also wasn’t tested for its counter-drone capabilities due to restrictions, he said.
The Army in December will evaluate the C-UAS Stryker platform for more than two weeks during a design verification event at Yuma Proving Ground in Arizona, House said. These tests will include kinetic and non-kinetic live-fire testing and will help the government better understand its mobile C-UAS requirements going forward and what a single vehicle platform offers versus the current M-LIDS, he said.
The C-UAS Stryker features significant commonality with the Army’s Maneuver Short Range Air Defense system, which is also based on the Stryker vehicle. C-UAS Stryker designed by Leonardo DRS can take out small, medium and larger drones in the Group 1 to 3 categories.
In addition to a single vehicle platform, some of the changes in C-UAS Stryker versus M-LIDS includes the non-kinetic defeat EW capability supplied by SNC and two Coyote launchers, allowing for four Coyotes to be launched. The system also includes a radar from RADA Technologies.