WASHINGTON - L-3 Communications Holdings Inc has won a U.S. Special Operations Command contract for remotely piloted aircraft support potentially worth up to $250 million, the Defense Department said on Friday.

The one-year contract includes options for four one-year periods for the so-called Expeditionary Unmanned Aircraft System to back the command's fixed-wing aircraft, the Pentagon's daily contract digest said.

It said the contract was awarded through full and open competition. The unmanned aircraft is provided by L-3's Geneva Aerospace unit of Carrollton, Texas.

(Reporting by Jim Wolf; Editing by Richard Chang)