Arthur McMiler
Textron has announced that its Textron Systems business will provide company-owned, company-operated, or COCO, services for unmanned aircraft systems to another three U.S. Navy littoral combat ships, also known as LCS, under a task order worth up to $47 million. The contract involves the company’s Aerosonde UAS that the Naval Air Systems Command earlier booked for operational services to three LCS deployed with the Navy’s 5th Fleet, Textron said Monday.
The new task order brings to 10 the number of Navy ships that Aerosonde supports, with the UAS and its mission payloads already aboard three other LCS, two guided missile destroyers and two expeditionary sea base, or ESB, vessels.
The second ESB contract was awarded in October 2022 and valued up to $22 million. The company secured the Aerosonde contract on the first three LCS, which was valued a potential $19.5 million, in August 2023. Textron Systems demonstrated Aerosonde’s first LCS operational flight on the USS Savannah in December 2023.
Full UAS Mission Support
Textron Systems deploys the UAS along with its skilled personnel providing mission support on intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance. Aerosonde is designed with a multi-mission capability developed from a UAS family with more than 700,000 flight hours in over 10 years of operations. It features multiple payload configurations that offer options for either vertical takeoff or fixed-wing operation.
David Phillips, Textron Systems’ senior vice president for air, land and sea systems, noted the flexibility and value that Aerosonde’s COCO services has delivered for more than a decade to the U.S. military. ‘“Because we are managing the full life cycle of the system, including technology integration, human factors, spares and repairs, employing the Aerosonde UAS enables the Navy customer to focus solely on their mission,” he said.
Besides Aerosonde, Textron Systems is providing the Navy with mine countermeasures unmanned surface vehicles under a potential $72 million indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contract awarded in August.
