RESTON, Virginia—Leidos was recently awarded a new prime contract to develop an uncrewed aircraft system that can autonomously resupply forward-deployed ground forces. The firm-fixed-price, multiple-award contract has a period of performance of 18 months to build a single prototype for the Marine Corps, the company said.

“Leidos leads the industry in taking cutting-edge innovations and making them mission-ready today,” said Tim Freeman, Leidos senior vice president and Airborne Solutions operations manager. “The ability to autonomously deliver hundreds of pounds of supplies over long ranges will be a game-changer for the warfighter. We look forward to demonstrating how the Leidos’ SeaOnyx solution will help deliver a logistics advantage to the Marines and other branches of the military.”

Under the contract, Leidos will develop, deliver and demonstrate an autonomous medium unmanned logistics system – air (MULS-A) prototype. The prototype will then be used to perform a logistics distribution mission at the tactical edge of the battlefield. The goal of the project is to demonstrate a prototype UAS that can carry a logistics payload between 300 and 600 pounds to a combat area with a radius of 25 to 100 nautical miles. The work will be performed at locations in Colorado, Ohio, Oregon, California, Nevada and Arizona.

Leidos teamed with Phenix Solutions to design the SeaOnyx prototype. Phenix is a non-traditional, veteran-owned small business defense contractor that develops UAS for a variety of missions.