Army awards multiple OTAs for Air Launched Effects

By Ashley Tressel / August 24, 2020 at 7:02 PM

The Army today announced the award of 10 other transaction agreements totaling $29.8 million for various parts of the Air Launched Effects effort to develop systems that will be launched from future vertical lift platforms.

Three projects for the ALE air vehicle go to Alliant Techsystems Operations in Northridge, CA; Raytheon in Tucson, AZ; and Area-I Inc. in Marietta, GA.

Three projects for ALE mission systems go to L3 Technologies Inc. in Salt Lake City; Rockwell Collins, Inc. in Cedar Rapids, IA; and Aurora Flight Services Corp. in Manassas, VA.

And four projects for ALE payloads go to Leonardo Electronics U.S. Inc. in Huntsville, AL; Technology Service Corp. in Huntsville, AL; Raytheon in Goleta, GA; and Alliant Techsystems Operations in Northridge, CA.

ALE will be miniature drones launched from current and future platforms, like the Future Attack Reconnaissance Aircraft, and are expected to arrive in the service in 2025.

"We have lots of flexibility inside the OTA that allows us to do many things once these technologies are proven and ready to be integrated," Joseph Giunta, executive director of Army Contracting Command-Redstone, said in a press release. "We've put a lot of tools in place to allow the [Future Vertical Lift Cross-Functional Team] and [Program Executive Office for Aviation] to take advantage of the flexibility, reduction in risk and time through this contracting strategy. We're excited to have that in place and to support our mission partners on an accelerated schedule."

The Army is working on science and technology planning and development "to deliver coordinated and distributed sensing and effects across electro-optical, infrared and radio frequency spectrums," according to an initial request for information released Aug. 12.

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