AeroVironment Awarded $10.7 M Puma 3 AE Contract for US Navy and Marine Corps SUAS Program

AeroVironment, Inc. (NASDAQ:AVAV), a global leader in unmanned aircraft systems (UAS), today announced its receipt of a $10,677,987 firm-fixed-price contract award for Puma™ 3 AE systems and spares on Feb. 18, 2020 for the U.S. Navy and Marine Corps Small Tactical Unmanned Aircraft Systems (SUAS) Program. Delivery is anticipated by April 2020.

“Puma 3 AE is a combat-proven enabler of U.S. Navy and Marine Corps tactical operations, providing persistent situational awareness, expeditionary reconnaissance, surveillance, and target acquisition, force protection and overwatch – anywhere and at any time,” said Rick Pedigo, AeroVironment vice president of business development. “Its versatility, ruggedness and reliability in a wide range of operating environments – over land and sea – consistently provide the actionable intelligence warfighters need to proceed with certainty.”

The AeroVironment Puma 3 AE is a fully man-portable unmanned aircraft system designed for land and maritime operations. The hand-launched Puma 3 AE has a wingspan of 9.2 feet (2.8 meters), weighs 15 pounds (6.8 kilograms) and can operate for up to 2.5 hours at a range of up to 12.4 miles (20 kilometers) with a standard antenna, and up to 37.2 miles (60 kilometers) with AeroVironment’s Long-Range Tracking Antenna (LRTA). Capable of landing in water or on land, the all-environment Puma, with its Mantis i45 EO/IR sensor suite, empowers the operator with extended flight time and a level of imaging capability never before available in the small UAS class.

AeroVironment’s family of small 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.