US SOCOM: a new drone operation contract

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The US Special Operations Command (SOCOM) has issued a Request for Proposal (RFP) for contractors today. The contract is for the operation of drones for intelligence gathering, surveillance and reconnaissance purposes.

The new contractors will supply the pilots, the aircrafts and support systems. The RFP comes now because SOCOM’s current Mid-Endurance Unmanned Aircraft Systems Operations and Intelligence, Surveillance, Reconnaissance Support contract (MEUAS II) is set to expire.

Under the current contract, SOCOM has obligated more than $150 million to ‘Incumbents Insitu’ (a division of Boeing), and to Textron Systems, with $71 million spent in fiscal 2014 alone.

The new request for proposals for MEUAS III is seeking to fill two requirements for drone operations, one for “Line of Sight” (LoS) operations, that is when pilots can see the drones they are operating, and the other for “Beyond Line of Sight” (BLoS) operations, when they cannot.

SOCOM’s drone operations are based in six locations and past contracting documents indicate that operations are primarily based in Afghanistan, with other activity based in Somalia, Yemen, the Philippines, and in the US out of Washington State. The sixth location is not identified in contract information.

According to Defense World Net SOCOM is seeking contractors to pilot drones on a 24/7 basis, and provide maintenance and engineering services. The MEUAS II statement of work requires  launch time from the receipt of a request no longer than 30 minutes; it requires that aircraft be able to return to pre-programmed locations in the event the data link between the base and the vehicle is lost; and requires that video be sufficiently crisp to allow an analyst to distinguish whether “a human target is holding a weapon such as a rifle or rocket propelled grenade, or a shovel” .