Monica Jackson
The Defense Department plans to procure an industry-built system that can launch the U.S. Army’s short range reconnaissance unmanned aircraft for situational awareness purposes.
A FedBizOpps notice posted Monday states that DoD seeks an autonomous drone that can perform vertical take-offs and landings, fly for 30 minutes, operate in 15 knot winds or greater and contain manual and semi-autonomous/waypoint flight modes.
The unmanned aircraft should also use open communications and video protocols, carry a payload with electro-optical and/or infrared capabilities for full-motion video and still image capture and detect objects at standoff ranges of 300 meters for EO and 200 meters for IR.
DoD will use the Defense Innovation Unit’s commercial solutions opening approach to review proposals and award “other transaction†agreements for the SRR system.
The department will accept responses to its special notice until Nov. 18.
Shortlisted vendors will be tasked to demonstrate their concepts in Boston, Mass., in January 2019, but various user assessments will be conducted throughout the duration program.
