General Atomics’ Christopher Ames Sees Growing Interest in Maritime Surveillance

Christopher Ames, director of international strategic development for General Atomics Aeronautical Systems, has noted at several indicators that he said point to a “growing interest in maritime surveillance,” DoD Buzz reported Tuesday.

Brendan McGarry writes the Department of Homeland Security bought a fleet of a maritime-configured variant of the General Atomics-built Predator B aircraft to aid in the U.S.-Mexico border surveillance mission.

The company has also begun to offer a maritime mode on the Lynx synthetic aperture radar to carry out maritime surveillance missions.

“We created another maritime mode so that you don’t have to incur the expense,” Ames said at the Paris Air Show in June.

“And so now, you can fly the aircraft on a terrestrial mission and you can retask it in the air for a maritime mission if something pops up that’s of interest,” Ames added.

The maritime mode operates in the same manner as the ground radar, according to Ames.