WASHINGTON - The Department of Defense (DoD) has awarded AeroVironment in Arlington County, Va., a three-year contract valued at up to $500 million to provide commercial counter-uncrewed aircraft system (C-UAS) and counter-small uncrewed aircraft system (C-sUAS) capabilities in support of the Joint Interagency Task Force 401 (JIATF-401) Domestic Shield Program.
The firm-fixed-price, sole-source contract is structured as an indefinite-delivery, indefinite-quantity (IDIQ) vehicle, enabling the government to issue task and delivery orders as operational requirements emerge. According to the DoD's announcement, work locations and funding will be determined with each order under the contract, which is scheduled for completion by 29 June 2029.
Army Contracting Command at Detroit Arsenal, Mich., awarded the contract under number W912CH-26-D-A073.
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The award is one of AeroVironment's largest publicly announced counter-UAS contracts since the company completed its acquisition of BlueHalo in 2025, significantly expanding its portfolio of counter-UAS, electronic warfare, autonomy, directed-energy and other defense technologies.
Domestic Sheild
The Domestic Shield program is intended to strengthen the protection of military installations, critical infrastructure, and other high-risk sites by expanding defensive perimeters against uncrewed aircraft threats, improving threat identification, enhancing information sharing among government agencies, supporting trained contractor personnel, and enabling more coordinated counter-UAS operations. The company said it will announce additional details as task and delivery orders are executed under the IDIQ contract.
The award follows the DoD's announcement in April that JIATF-401 had committed more than $600 million to expand counter-uncrewed aircraft capabilities in support of Operation Epic Fury and homeland defense initiatives.
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Although the DoD contract announcement did not identify the specific systems to be procured, AeroVironment said it will provide an integrated, layered counter-UAS architecture designed to detect, track, identify and defeat drone threats across a range of operational environments.
C-UAS architecture
According to the company, the architecture is centered on its AV_Halo software platform, which serves as an integration layer linking sensors, platforms and operators while supporting interoperability with third-party technologies, command-and-control systems and emergency response networks.
Modern layered counter-UAS systems typically combine multiple sensing and engagement technologies rather than relying on a single sensor or effector. Depending on mission requirements, these systems may integrate radio-frequency detection and geolocation, short-range radar, electro-optical and infrared sensors, acoustic sensors, artificial intelligence, sensor fusion, electronic warfare capabilities and kinetic or non-kinetic effectors to counter increasingly sophisticated drone threats.
The contract also reflects the DoD's continued use of commercially developed technologies to accelerate deployment of counter-drone capabilities. Commercial systems can generally be fielded more rapidly than traditional development programs while allowing new sensors, software applications and electronic warfare techniques to be incorporated as threats continue to evolve.
Programs such as Domestic Shield are expected to continue driving demand for high-performance embedded processing, artificial intelligence at the edge, multi-sensor fusion, resilient communications, electronic warfare technologies, and modular open-system architectures that enable new sensors and effectors to be integrated as operational requirements change
