Nellis Air Force Base Renews UNIFY.C2 Contract Following Successful Year-Long Counter-UAS Evaluation

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Nellis Air Force Base has renewed its contract for the UNIFY.C2 Counter-small Unmanned Aircraft Systems (C-sUAS) Mission Command Platform, following a year-long evaluation that transitioned the system from assessment into continued operational use. The announcement, made on 7 October 2026, confirms that the platform — built by Dallas-based Spatial Persistent Software (operating as SPS ARS, LLC) — has cleared one of the U.S. Air Force's more demanding proving grounds.

The renewal moves the system from evaluation into sustained operational use, supporting coordinated counter-drone operations across Nellis and Creech Air Force Bases and the Nevada Test and Training Range — a geographically dispersed cluster of installations collectively covering a large portion of the Las Vegas Valley. According to the company, the collaboration spans installation defence, flight-line security, training, and range activities across that footprint.

During the initial contract period, UNIFY.C2 provided operators with a unified common operating picture (COP) that aggregated data from multiple sources, technologies, and manufacturers, consolidating sensor interface displays, tracks, alerts, and decision-relevant information into a single operational environment. The platform did not replace existing sensors; instead, it acted as an interoperability layer, normalising and fusing disparate data feeds.

"The decision to renew after a year of hands-on use reflects confidence in the platform and in our team, and in UNIFY.C2's ability to bring different systems and different vendors together without creating additional complexity for the operator," said Jerry McGee, Chief Executive Officer of UNIFY.C2.

The Nellis renewal is the latest in a series of U.S. Air Force engagements for the platform. In June 2026, UNIFY.C2 was selected to deliver an integrated counter-UAS common operating picture at Beale Air Force Base — home of the 9th Reconnaissance Wing — with an open-architecture mandate to consolidate drone detection, airspace surveillance, and C-UAS data without replacing existing infrastructure. Earlier, in July 2026, UNIFY.C2 was selected as one of 21 companies from 149 industry submissions to participate in U.S. Central Command's Experimentation: Transforming in Contact (EXTiC) 26-2 event at the Playas Training and Research Center in New Mexico, where it connected six previously unintegrated sensor modalities from multiple vendors into a single COP under operationally relevant conditions. The platform has also served as the command-and-control layer for the National Guard Bureau's MagnoliaCrucible 2026 counter-UAS exercise at Camp Shelby.

Technical Breakdown

Platform type: Software-defined C-sUAS Mission Command Platform (command and control / common operating picture layer)

Developer: Spatial Persistent Software / SPS ARS, LLC (Dallas, TX)

Architecture: Vendor-neutral, sensor-agnostic, open architecture. The platform does not replace sensors; it acts as the interoperability and data-fusion layer sitting above existing sensor estates.

Sensor modalities supported: Radar, radio frequency (RF), Remote ID, electro-optical and infrared (EO/IR), acoustic sensors, ADS-B, and vendor API feeds. The platform's library covers 130+ UAS sensor models, with reported instances of up to 98 sensors connected in a single deployment.

Core functions: Real-time sensor fusion and track management; multi-vendor data normalisation; alerting; behaviour and risk assessment per flight; operational coordination across command centres, field personnel, TAK users, and authorised response systems.

TAK interoperability: Two-way interoperability with TAK-family applications including ATAK and WinTAK, with integration into existing C2 and dispatch systems — no rip-and-replace required.

Deployment options: Cloud, on-premise, air-gapped, and AWS GovCloud environments, with customer-owned data architecture.

Threat classes addressed: Group 1 and Group 2 unmanned aircraft systems.

Operational scope at Nellis complex: Installation defence, flight-line security, training operations, and range activities across Nellis AFB, Creech AFB, and the Nevada Test and Training Range.

Industry Impact

For C-UAS platform developers: The Nellis renewal is a concrete data point that U.S. military customers are willing to sustain software-layer, vendor-neutral C2 platforms rather than committing to vertically integrated, single-vendor stacks. Competitors developing proprietary end-to-end systems will face increasing pressure to demonstrate open-integration credentials.

For sensor and hardware manufacturers: UNIFY.C2's architecture explicitly positions itself as additive rather than competitive to existing sensor investments. This creates a commercial pathway for radar, RF, EO/IR, and acoustic sensor OEMs to achieve integration without requiring direct government procurement, simply by qualifying for inclusion in the UNIFY.C2 sensor library.

For system integrators: The demand signal from multiple Air Force installations (Nellis, Creech, Beale) for a single, unified COP underscores the growing systems-integration opportunity in base defence. Integrators who can demonstrate multi-sensor fusion competency — rather than single-sensor deployment — are better positioned to capture follow-on work.

For U.S. Air Force and DoD operators: The transition from a year-long evaluation to a renewed operational contract indicates a procurement model that prioritises demonstrated operational performance over paper specifications. The multi-base coverage model (Nellis, Creech, Nevada Test and Training Range) suggests an appetite for networked, jurisdiction-spanning C-UAS architectures rather than isolated, per-installation deployments.

For investors and the broader C-UAS sector: UNIFY.C2's accumulation of Air Force and CENTCOM engagements in 2026 — Nellis renewal, Beale selection, EXTiC 26-2 participation, and MagnoliaCrucible — positions it as an increasingly validated interoperability platform. The vendor-neutral model reduces single-customer concentration risk and creates recurring software revenue potential as sensor estates grow and evolve.