Aerosonde UAS to support US Air Force Academy mission

AAI Unmanned Aircraft Systems, an operating unit of Textron Systems, a Textron Inc. company, announced today that it has been awarded a fee-for-service contract from BOSH Global Services to provide an Aerosonde unmanned aircraft system (UAS) for use by the US Air Force Academy.

The contract includes an Aerosonde Mark 4.7 system; support personnel to launch, fly and recover the aircraft; and computer-based training and simulation software for Cadets to utilize in their training. The academy also will gain use of AAI's On-the-Move Command and Control (OMCC) capability, which allows the aircraft to be controlled by personnel in a moving command and control station. The contract is for a one year period with an option to extend for one additional year.

"The fee-for-service arrangement provides the academy with a flexible, cost-effective, comprehensive system to train Cadets in the planning and executing UAS missions," says Stephen Flach, division vice president of AAI's Small Unmanned Aircraft Systems. "The academy will be able to draw upon the considerable assets of this AAI system as they train a core group of future US Air Force leaders."

First unveiled in March 2009, the Aerosonde Mark 4.7 is part of AAI's modular fleet of small unmanned aircraft systems, and was jointly developed and produced by personnel at both AAI's Hunt Valley, Md., headquarters and Aerosonde Pty Ltd, the company's small unmanned aircraft systems business unit in Melbourne, Australia.

A standard-bearer in unmanned innovation for the last several decades, AAI has spent more than 25 years designing, producing, fielding and sustaining UAS for use in a wide variety of military, scientific and civilian applications. The company's contractor-owned, contractor-operated fee-for-service business was launched in an effort to meet our clients' UAS needs in the most efficient and cost-effective way possible while providing them with experienced, highly skilled operators and maintainers under a variety of operating conditions.

Source: Textron

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