National Technical Systems Awarded $1.6M Contract from Sandia National Laboratories

National Technical Systems

announced today that it has signed a $1.6 million contract with Sandia National Laboratories to continue the development of the Harvester project, a program authorized by the U.S. Department of Energy dedicated to monitoring nuclear emissions in the atmosphere through the use of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), also called drones. The new contract covers the second phase of the multi-phase project that NTS has been involved in since the start of phase 1.  Sandia is a multi-program national security laboratory operated by Sandia Corporation, a wholly owned subsidiary of Lockheed Martin, for the U.S. Department of Energy's National Nuclear Security Administration. The program, which is being managed at NTS' Albuquerque facility, includes creating and testing sophisticated airborne collection and sampling systems as well as the modular payload pods that carry the systems aboard the UAVs. The airborne collection system, named Harvester because of its collecting capabilities, can measure radiation in the atmosphere as a means of monitoring the use of nuclear devices. Once mounted on a