Protest holds up US Army Switchblade award

The US Army recently awarded AeroVironment a contract that could be worth up to USD990 million to deliver more Switchblade loitering munitions for its Lethal Unmanned Systems (LUS), but work has been stopped on the award, according to the company.

It is unclear which company protested the indefinite delivery/indefinite quantity (ID/IQ) award that was announced on 27 August. The nearly USD1 billion award is part of the Low Altitude Stalking and Strike Ordnance (LASSO) programme to “further” increase production capacity for the Switchblade 600 Block 1 loitering munition, Alton Stewart, Programme Executive Office Soldier spokesperson, told Janes in a 13 September statement.

According to a Securities and Exchange Commission filing, a protest against the award was filed on 27 August, with an expected decision date of 16 December. “The US Army has issued a stop-work order on the contract and the delivery order issued” while the protest is considered, according to AeroVironment's filing.

However, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) docket does not list an open protest filed with the Department of the Army or Department of Defense (DoD) for those dates. The GAO is required by law to respond within 100 calendar days, according to its website.

Stewart declined to say for which increment of LASSO AeroVironment was awarded. The company announced that it was selected for tranche 1 of the DoD's Replicator accelerator programme in May 2024.

The “rapid fielding” of the Switchblade 600 will help “capture lessons learned”, Stewart told Janes .

He also declined to say when follow-on competitions were expected to commence. Anticipated work will include wide industry input and competition, he noted.