AeroVironment has announced that on Feb. 20, it was awarded a firm-fixed-price contract valued at $2,685,057 for its Puma Long Endurance (LE) UAS. The contract came from a U.S. ally and longtime customer of the company. 


The order also included spares to support the customer’s existing fleet of AeroVironment tactical UAS. The contract award period of performance is one year.

“Puma LE is the newest member of our combat-proven family of tactical unmanned aircraft systems,” says Rick Pedigo, vice president of sales and business development for AeroVironment.

“Puma LE provides customers with Group 2 UAS endurance capabilities, nearly doubling the time on station of Puma 3, with cost savings and the footprint of a Group 1 unmanned aircraft.”

Weighing just 22.5 pounds, the AeroVironment Puma LE can be launched by hand or bungee, and provides a dedicated secondary payload bay in addition to its Mantis i45 gimbaled EO/IR sensor.

The Puma LE can fly for 5.5 hours with its on-board batteries. When used with AeroVironment’s Long-Range Tracking Antenna (LRTA), the UAS has an operational range of 37.2 miles.

Puma LE’s economical dual-case mission pack includes everything needed to perform two complete 5.5-hour missions with a single aircraft and Ground Control System (GCS). The UAS uses plug and play, interoperable line-replaceable unit (LRU) components that can be shared with other Puma AE aircraft.