Pierce Aerospace, a provider of drone Remote Identification technologies, announced that it was awarded a $10 million Indefinite Delivery Indefinite Quantity (IDIQ) subcontract from Amentum, a global leader in advanced engineering and innovative technology solutions, to support evolving requirements from the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Science and Technology Directorate (S&T).

This subcontract was awarded as a Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Program Phase III award under Amentum’s Department of Defense Information Analysis Center’s (DoD IAC) multiple-award contract (MAC) vehicle.  DoD IAC MAC task orders (TOs) are awarded by the U.S. Air Force’s 774th Enterprise Sourcing Squadron to develop and create new knowledge for the enhancement of the DTIC repository and the R&D and S&T community. This new subcontract provides opportunities to test and evaluate Pierce Aerospace’s advanced Remote Identification capabilities.

Through this subcontract, Pierce Aerospace is deploying its market-leading Remote ID detection, tracking, and identification systems and software to various geographies with multiple departments and agencies participating. Pierce Aerospace’s solutions, including the YR1 Remote ID Sensor, are designed to provide commercial and government end users with an affordable means to monitor airspace for Remote ID broadcast messages, filling gaps in airspace awareness. Pierce Aerospace’s solutions can be layered with other capabilities to provide a holistic approach to airspace safety and security.

“We are incredibly grateful for this opportunity to serve various United States agencies that are now using our Remote ID capabilities to enhance their airspace awareness,” said Aaron Pierce, CEO and co-founder of Pierce Aerospace. “This award marks a big step in the evolution of end users’ airspace missions, and we look forward to continuing to evolve and enhance that mission as we deploy these systems.”

“Remote ID has been coming for a long time. We started work on this path in 2017 and built many of the capabilities we now deploy to end users via the Small Business Administration’s (SBA) SBIR program that we started with the U.S. Air Force via AFWERX,” said Pierce. “The Amentum team leaned forward and worked with us to make this award an SBIR Phase III subcontract, extending our abilities to serve end users today and into the future. Using an SBIR Phase III vehicle to scale Remote ID is the exact sort of path that Congress envisioned for the SBA’s SBIR program.”

Remote ID is the ability of a drone to broadcast its identification and location information and is an FAA requirement. The FAA codified Remote ID as a rule on January 15, 2021, and began enforcement of Remote ID on March 16, 2024. More information on Remote ID can be found here.