AeroVironment, Inc., a global leader in unmanned aircraft systems (UAS), today announced that a U.S. ally and longtime customer awarded the company a firm-fixed-price contract valued at $2,685,057 on February 20, 2020 for AeroVironment’s recently introduced Pumaâ„¢ LE. The order also included spares to support the customer’s existing fleet of AeroVironment tactical UAS. The contract award period of performance is one year.
“Puma LE is the newest member of our combat-proven family of tactical unmanned aircraft systems,” said Rick Pedigo, vice president of sales and business development for AeroVironment. Puma LE provides customers with Group 2 UAS endurance capabilities, nearly doubling the time on station of Puma 3, with cost savings and the footprint of a Group 1 unmanned aircraft.”
The AeroVironment Puma LE weighs only 22.5 pounds (10.4 kilograms), is launchable by hand or bungee and provides a dedicated secondary payload bay in addition to its Mantis i45 gimbaled EO/IR sensor. On-board batteries provide 5.5 hours of flight endurance with an operational range of 37.2 miles (60 kilometers) when used with AeroVironment’s Long-Range Tracking Antenna (LRTA). Puma LE’s economical dual-case mission pack contains everything needed to perform two complete 5.5-hour missions with a single aircraft and Ground Control System (GCS). Puma LE utilizes plug and play, interoperable line-replaceable unit (LRU) components that can be shared with other Puma AE aircraft.
AeroVironment’s family of tactical UAS comprises the majority of all unmanned aircraft in the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) inventory and its rapidly growing international customer base numbers more than 45 allied governments.
The RQ-20A/B Pumaâ„¢, Pumaâ„¢ LE, RQ-11B Raven®, RQ-12A Wasp®, together with the VAPOR® Helicopter comprise AeroVironment’s family of tactical unmanned aircraft systems. This family of systems provides increased capability to the warfighter that gives ground commanders the option of selecting the appropriate aircraft based on the type of mission to be performed. This increased capability has the potential to provide significant force protection and force multiplication benefits to small tactical units and security personnel. AeroVironment provides logistics services worldwide to ensure a consistently high level of operational readiness. AeroVironment has delivered thousands of new and replacement tactical unmanned air vehicles to customers within the United States and to more than 45 allied governments.
AeroVironment provides customers with more actionable intelligence so they can proceed with certainty. Based in California, AeroVironment is a global leader in unmanned aircraft systems and tactical missile systems, and serves defense, government and commercial customers. For more information visit www.avinc.com.
