"[The] Lethality Challenge selection gives us a rail-locked pathway to thousands or tens of thousands of unit orders for this product, which has absolutely changed the caliber of discussion we’re having with investors, suppliers, other customers/partners, etc," drone-maker Bravo's Kevin Landtroop told Breaking Defense.
"Traditionally it takes a long time to fill a requirement, and we have this protracted competition, and maybe you only choose one or two. Now it's you tell us when you're ready," Col. Danielle Medaglia, head of the Army’s project management office for UAS, told reporters here in Huntsville, Ala.
Answering the Pentagon’s call to bolster defense industrial base.
The company will absorb Ascent Aerosystems, maker of small drones already invovled in a DoD competition.
The DoD is about to choose the winners from its "Gauntlet" unmanned exercise and provide successful systems to military units "over the next five months," a DoD official said.
After military operators fly the drones, the department plans to award deals totaling $150 million.