The Army has awarded Heaviside Industries a $99 million, five-year indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contract for procurement, fielding, upgrades and sustainment of MOTH spectrum analyzers. 3 4
By PAI
Sept. 1, 2026
WASHINGTON — The Army has awarded Heaviside Industries Inc. of Marina del Rey, California, a $99 million firm-fixed-price, indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contract for procurement, fielding, upgrades and sustainment of the company’s MOTH spectrum analyzer. Army Contracting Command at Aberdeen Proving Ground, Maryland, made the award Aug. 27; its estimated completion date is Aug. 27, 2031. 3
The award was the subject of an Aug. 31 LinkedIn post by Tectonic, which described MOTH as a passive radio-frequency spectrum analyzer intended to alert soldiers to drone and radio signals and linked to a fuller Tectonic report. 1 2
The public award notice establishes the contract’s value, form and scope. It does not identify the Army units that will receive the equipment, the number of devices, delivery schedules, task-order values or where the work will occur. Those details and funding will be determined with individual orders, according to the notice. 3
What the award covers
An indefinite-delivery, indefinite-quantity contract, commonly called an IDIQ, is used when the exact timing or quantity of future deliveries is not known at award. Federal acquisition rules allow agencies to order supplies or services after requirements materialize; the government’s contractual obligation is limited to the minimum quantity specified in the contract. 4
That distinction is important for interpreting the $99 million figure. The Army announcement calls the award a $99 million contract, but it does not disclose a minimum quantity, an initial delivery order or funds obligated at award. It says the work locations and funding will be set by order. The figure should therefore not be treated as evidence that $99 million in devices has already been delivered or funded. 3 4
The procurement was competitive. The Army said it solicited bids through the internet and received 99. The announcement identifies contract number W56KGY-26-D-A003 and says the contract is firm-fixed-price, meaning the terms reported publicly concern an IDIQ vehicle rather than a research award or a one-time purchase order. 3
A wearable radio-frequency sensor
MOTH is a ruggedized, body-worn RF spectrum analyzer, not a drone interceptor or a radio-frequency jammer. In this application, passive RF sensing means listening for radio emissions rather than transmitting a signal; it can provide warning when relevant emissions are present, but its public specifications do not establish that it can detect every aircraft or determine hostile intent. 2 5 9
A Lumenier product listing describes MOTH as detecting signals from 5 megahertz to 6 gigahertz and lists vibration notifications, direction-finding mode, a display and compatibility with the Android Team Awareness Kit, or ATAK. The listing gives a scan speed of five times per second, a battery-included weight of 0.99 pounds and dimensions of 5.78 by 3.3 by 1.8 inches. 5
The same listing gives a retail price of $4,950. That price is not an Army unit price and cannot be used to calculate how many analyzers the contract will buy: the Army’s stated scope also includes fielding, upgrades and sustainment, and it has not released order-level pricing or quantities. 3 5
The published specifications describe the device’s form factor and functions, not a verified operational outcome. They do not state a detection distance, probability of detection, false-alert rate, the time needed to classify an emission or the distance and conditions under which its direction-finding mode is effective. The product listing also gives an IP67 ingress-protection rating and a stated operating range of 14 to 131 degrees Fahrenheit, but it does not provide Army environmental-test results or mission performance data. 5
The award notice likewise does not say which accessories, software, training, spares or support activities individual orders will include. Because the contract expressly covers both hardware procurement and follow-on fielding, upgrades and sustainment, its ceiling cannot by itself establish the volume of spectrum analyzers the Army will obtain. 3 4
Tectonic reported that Heaviside’s main business is autonomous precision munitions and characterized MOTH as separate from that product line. Heaviside’s own press page describes the company as building multi-domain precision-munitions platforms; neither the company page nor the contract announcement provides technical performance data for MOTH beyond what is stated in the public materials. 2 6
Detection before response
The purchase comes as the Defense Department has identified unmanned systems as an urgent and enduring threat to U.S. personnel, facilities and overseas assets. In its December 2024 announcement of a classified departmentwide strategy, the department said unmanned aerial systems, commonly called drones, posed the most significant current threat among unmanned systems and described Replicator 2 as an effort to defend critical installations and force concentrations from small aerial systems. 7
Detection is only one part of counter-small unmanned aircraft systems operations, or C-sUAS. An Army Air Defense Artillery Journal article says detection is the foundation for responding to the threat and notes that passive acoustic and RF sensors have become more common. It also stresses that local warning has limited value unless the information is communicated to adjacent units and higher headquarters. 8
For a dismounted soldier, a small sensor could add information about nearby RF activity without operating a larger, fixed detection system. The public materials support that limited description: the contract is for a spectrum analyzer, and the vendor listing says it is handheld and vest-portable. They do not describe the Army’s concept of operations, interfaces beyond ATAK compatibility or how warnings will be validated before troops act. 3 5
Signal detection has limits
RF detection depends on an observable radio signal. A peer-reviewed review of drone detection methods identifies frequency overlap and signal jamming as real-world RF interference factors and lists the inability to detect a drone’s RF signal among the effects that can result. The review concludes that radar, RF, acoustic and visual approaches have distinct limitations and discusses sensor fusion as a means to improve robustness. 9
The Army has highlighted a related operational constraint. In an August 2025 article, the Center for Army Lessons Learned said fiber-optic spool-fed drones send command and video through a thin physical cable, which makes them difficult for some C-sUAS systems that rely on electromagnetic-spectrum detection to detect and target. The article said their electronic subsystems can emit weak signals, but detecting those emissions is difficult. 10
Those constraints do not diminish the stated role of an RF analyzer; they define it. A radio receiver can contribute early warning and spectrum awareness against emitters within its coverage, but it is not a substitute for a layered detection architecture that can address nonemitting or hard-to-classify threats. Army guidance describes passive RF and acoustic capabilities as part of an expanding sensor set, rather than as a stand-alone answer to the C-sUAS problem. 8 9 10
Public record leaves deployment questions open
The available record confirms a contract for MOTH but leaves the operational rollout unresolved. The Army notice does not specify a quantity, recipient formation, delivery location, detection range, probability of detection, false-alert rate, target-library method or the types of drones and communications signals it will be expected to recognize. The retail listing provides device specifications, but not independently validated battlefield performance. 3 5
The distinction matters because procurement, fielding, upgrades and sustainment are the contract’s stated work, not proof of fielded capability at a particular scale. Future delivery orders may show how the Army applies the contract and what equipment, training and support it funds. Until then, the confirmed development is a competitively awarded, five-year vehicle for MOTH spectrum analyzers and associated fielding and sustainment work. 3 4