U.S. Army Awards AAI Sole-Source Contract for Continued Lightweight Small Arms Technologies Development

HUNT VALLEY, Md. --- AAI Corporation, an operating unit of Textron Systems, a Textron Inc. company, announced today that it has received a three-year, sole-source contract from the U.S. Armys Joint Service Small Arms Program Office, based at the Armament Research, Development & Engineering Center in Picatinny, N.J., for continued development of Lightweight Small Arms Technologies (LSAT).>> Initial funding for this contract totals $5.8 million, with incremental funding up to a total potential contract value of $28 million.>> Under this follow-on contract, AAI will continue work it began under a prior contract to develop the 5.56-millimeter light machine gun and two lightweight ammunition technologies, including a cased telescoped (plastic-cased) design and a caseless design. With a focus on increasing the maturity of these technologies even further, AAI also will begin development of a new cased telescoped carbine rifle variant, a valuable addition to this family of high-performance, lightweight weaponry.>> The contract is expected to culminate in an operational demonstration of LSAT in 2011, for which AAI will provide 100,000 rounds of cased telescoped ammunition and eight light machine guns. Options under the contract that the Army may exercise include development of a caseless carbine, fabrication of additional caseless ammunition, a subcompact weapon study, and implementation of alternate bullet configurations.>> There is nothing more important to our team than getting the best possible systems into the hands of Americas warfighters, says AAI Vice President of Business Development and Advanced Systems David Phillips. By continuing our work on the LSAT program, AAI can advance these armament and ammunition technologies, looking toward a time when they will be the standard for our nations warfighters. Not only will LSAT provide a lightweight alternative to existing weaponry, but these technologies will deliver precise, repeatable and reliable performance.