The US Marine Corps (USMC) has awarded contracts to three companies – AeroVironment, Anduril Industries and Teledyne FLIR Defense – for the development of small loitering munitions in deals which could be total as much as US$289 million.
The contracts were for the build, test, support and delivery of a non-developmental item loitering munition system designed to provide dismounted marines in the infantry rifle squad with precision-strike capability against adversaries beyond the line of sight.
The OPF-L will be man-packable and consist of the loitering munition, related ground control station, training simulator and ancillary equipment needed to support the technology, according to the