The U.S. Air Force plans to spend $338 million in 2016 on logistics support for its fleet of Predator and Reaper unmanned aircraft.
The service announced a contract for that amount with Poway-based General Atomics Aeronautical Systems Inc. on Dec. 18. The cost-plus-fixed-fee contract runs through the end of 2016.
Under the new deal, the contractor will provide program management, logistics support, configuration management, technical manual and software maintenance, field service representative support, inventory control point management, flight operations support, depot repair and depot field maintenance. The Air Force Life Cycle Management Center at Robins Air Force Base, Georgia, awarded the deal.
A few days later, on Dec. 23, the Pentagon announced a similar deal between GA-ASI and a foreign military customer, the Royal Air Force. The contractor logistics support deal will run through March 2017 and is worth $57 million. The U.S. Air Force Life Cycle Management Center at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Ohio awarded the deal, called an undefinitized contract action.
Separately, the General Atomics affiliate said on Dec. 22 that it delivered the last of its original-model Predator A systems to the government of Italy.
“With the delivery of these aircraft, GA-ASI completes over two decades of delivering Predator A capabilities to the United States and allied countries,” Frank W. Pace, president of Aircraft Systems at GA-ASI, said in a statement distributed by the defense contractor.
Privately held GA-ASI is still producing Predator B aircraft, also called Reaper, which is a heavier version of the original Predator.
