UNMANNED SYSTEMS UPDATE
02 Nov 07. Northrop Grumman Systems Corp., Sierra Vista, Ariz., was awarded on Oct. 31, 2007, a $14,672,162 increment as part of a $50,193,040 cost-plus-fixed-fee contract for contractor logistics support for Hunter-unique equipment utilized to support deployment and contingency operations. Work will be performed in Sierra Vista, Ariz., and is expected to be completed by Oct. 30, 2008. Contract funds will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year. This was a sole source contract initiated on July 20, 2007. The U.S. Army Aviation and Missile Command, Redstone Arsenal, Ala., is the contracting activity (W58RGZ-08-C-0025).
01 Nov 07. AAI Corp., Hunt Valley, Md., was awarded on Oct. 31, 2007, a $75,160,218 firm-fixed-price contract for Full-Rate Production Buy of SHADOW Unmanned Aerial Vehicle Systems and associated support equipment. Work will be performed in Hunt Valley, Md., and is expected to be completed by March 15, 2010. Contract funds will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year. This was a sole source contract initiated on Aug. 16, 2007. The U.S. Army Aviation and Missile Command, Redstone Arsenal, Ala., is the contracting activity (W58RGZ-08-C-0023).
01 Nov 07. AAI Corp., Hunt Valley, Md., was awarded on Oct. 31, 2007, a $25,903,138 cost-plus-incentive-fee and cost-plus-fixed-fee contract for SHADOW Unmanned Aerial Vehicle System Special Unit Training in Support of Operations Iraqi and Enduring Freedom. Work will be performed in Hunt Valley, Md., and is expected to be completed by Oct. 31, 2008. Contract funds will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year. This was a sole source contract initiated on Aug. 16, 2007. The U.S. Army Aviation and Missile Command, Redstone Arsenal, Ala., is the contracting activity (W58RGZ-08-C-0016
Nov 07. “Little Ben” was one of just four driverless cars to complete the 2007 DARPA Urban Challenge in six hours. In the arid terrain of Southern California, just north of San Bernardino and west of the Mojave Desert, a robotic car named “Little Ben” made history on Saturday, Nov. 3. The car, designed by engineers from Lehigh, the University of Pennsylvania and Lockheed Martin’s Advanced Technology Laboratories, was one of just six vehicles to navigate and drive itself through the entire 60 miles of the 2007 DARPA Urban Challenge. Little Ben did not win any of the $3.5m in prize money from DARPA, the Pentagon’s research wing, but it recorded several significant honors while exceeding the expectations of its engineers. The converted Toyota Prius was one of just four “driverless” cars to complete the Challenge in six hours, and it was the only car of the six finishers whose team had not received $1m funding from DARPA to prepare for the race. In completing the course at the former George Air Force Base in Victorville, Calif., Little Ben survived a rigorous, yearlong winnowing process. A total of 89 teams, from around the U.S. and abroad, entered this year’s Challenge, the third such event that DARPA has sponsored. Three dozen, including Little Ben, passed site visits last summer to advance to last week’s national qualifying event.
30 Oct 07. Evergreen Unmanned Systems (EUS) debuted its new unmanned aircraft system (UAS) on Thursday, Nov. 1, in Arlington, Ore., at the Arlington Municipal Airport. The demonstration will include a launch and recovery of the aircraft and a viewing of the high definition, streaming imagery from it, along with additional information on the new mobile system. The event marks the first official flight of the Evergreen UAS system. A UAS is an aircraft with no pilot onboard that flies autonomously from pre-programmed data. The Evergreen system can also be re-programmed in-flight from the two-man ground control to closely view areas of higher interest. Evergreen’s Insight UAS is manufactured by Insitu, Inc. of Bingen, Wash. Insitu is a pioneer of small, long endurance, unmanned aircraft. The aircraft is e