US Army sole sources acquisition of Raytheon’s Coyote counter-UAV system

The US Army has sole-sourced the acquisition of 6,700 Coyote counter-UAS (Uncrewed Air System) interceptors from US missile house Raytheon. The US Army needs to develop, produce and maintain countermeasures against enemy-armed and intelligence gathering UAS’s operating at various speeds and altitudes.

According to a market solicitation released before Christmas and now closed, the US Government was concurrently conducting market research for the rapid development, deployment, and support of the US Army Coyote Missile System, Coyote Missile launchers and Ku-band Radio Frequency System (KuRFS) Radar. The service is scheduled to begin in March. It’s not known if this solicitation pre-dates last year’s celebrated establishment by US Deputy Defence Secretary Kathleen Hicks of the Replicator Initiative which aims to acquire thousands of UAVs, quickly, for the US armed services.

The Coyote is a radar guided, air breathing missile using Synthetic Aviation Fuel (SAF). KuRFS is a Ku-band radar capable of fire control quality tracks and provides guidance for the Coyote missile as well as air picture information.

The Government intended to award the contract direct to Raytheon, though it invited companies who believe they are capable of meeting its requirement to indicate their interest. Interested sources had to have sufficient logistics, engineering and other expertise to provide all facets of development, production and support for the Army’s Coyote and KuRFS systems without the aid of a technical data package (TDP).

“The interested source shall be capable of providing coverage, starting approximately March 2024, for the following,” the solication says, listing maintenance and repair support in the USA and overseas for the Coyote missile and launcher and the KuRFS radar; enough personnel to man a minimum of 15 repair and support sites; training; and logistics.

“The interested source shall have the capability to produce, integrate and perform acceptance test of both the KuRFS and Coyote systems IAW USG requirements. The interested source’s production facility shall have ISO 9000 certification. The estimated production requirement over five years (FY25-FY29) is:

System                                                               Minimum Quantity

Fixed Site Coyote Launcher Systems                                    252

Mobile Coyote Launcher Systems                                         25

Coyote Kinetic Interceptor                                                     6000

Coyote Non-Kinetic Interceptor                                            700

Fixed Site KuRFS                                                                       118

Mobile KuRFS                                                                            33

As a warning to non-US respondents, the solicitation also states: “This procurement requires the contractor to operate as a US corporation with a secure manufacturing facility approved to the SECRET level by the Defense Security Service (DSS).”