I've been calling around all day to find this out, but so far no luck. Maybe somebody reading the blog can help me. I am reliably informed that NAVAIR received six bids for the STUAS/Tier II contract when the solicitation period closed on 9 June. I know for a fact that bids came in from AAI Corp with the Aerosonde Mk 5, Boeing/Insitu with the Integrator and Raytheon/Swift Engineering with the KillerBee-4.
I strongly suspect bids were submitted from UAV Dynamics (a new General Dynamics/Elbit Systems joint venture) with an unknown aircraft and Aurora Flight Sciences (possibly partnered with Northrop Grumman) with the Golden-Eye 80.
So who is the mysterious sixth bidder? I have three guesses: BAE Systems with a recently acquired Advanced Ceramics Research aircraft, Lockheed Martin with a Skunk Works-developed vehicle or Stark Aerospace/Israeli Aircraft Industries (IAI) with another aircraft.
Who wants to make a guess?
I strongly suspect bids were submitted from UAV Dynamics (a new General Dynamics/Elbit Systems joint venture) with an unknown aircraft and Aurora Flight Sciences (possibly partnered with Northrop Grumman) with the Golden-Eye 80.
So who is the mysterious sixth bidder? I have three guesses: BAE Systems with a recently acquired Advanced Ceramics Research aircraft, Lockheed Martin with a Skunk Works-developed vehicle or Stark Aerospace/Israeli Aircraft Industries (IAI) with another aircraft.
Who wants to make a guess?
on June 26, 2009 8:59 PM | Reply
GD/Elbit submitted Hermes 90.
Aurora is on record saying goldeneye is not competitive in STUAS due to inherent deficiencies in VTOL.
Only 4 bidders were present at the site survey for the demo which is underway right now. Demo is required part of submission so submitting a proposal without showing up at the site survey doesn't make sense.
on June 27, 2009 10:11 AM | Reply
this contest is interesting just because its so low profile. point is, the requirements have been written so tightly that really only two by my count have a chance to win the contract. a whole lot of wishful thinking is going on here.
on June 27, 2009 10:21 AM | Reply
this contest is interesting just because its so low profile. point is, the requirements have been written so tightly that really only two by my count have a chance to win the contract. a whole lot of wishful thinking is going on here.
on July 14, 2009 3:49 PM | Reply
Who were the 4 bidders at the site survey/demo?