General Services Administration (GSA) announced that it would only procure five drone models approved by the special Department of Defense (DoD) program of the U.S. Government. This news has added to the ongoing war between the U.S federal government and Chinese-made drones.
In its blog GSA said, “Due to the significant risk associated with offering small unmanned aerial vehicles under its Multiple Award Schedules (MAS) program it would remove all drone models from MAS procurement contracts, except those approved by DoD’s Defense Innovation Unit (DIU) through its Blue sUAS Program.
A GSA spokeswoman told a news daily that the agencies action does not prevent other federal agencies from acquiring non-Blue sUAS drones through avenues outside of the GSA and the action will not have any effect on agencies that currently still have non-Blue sUAS drones in their inventory. She added, “GSA stopped awarding drones under new MAS contracts as of this month and is now working toward removing drones currently awarded under MAS contracts by February 1.
The spokesperson also stated, ” GSA values its partnership with its contractors and is committed to exploring how drones can be securely offered under MAS. Affected contractors may have the opportunity to add non-Blue sUAS drones back to their MAS contracts in the future.”
