Mary-Louise Hoffman
The U.S. Army has asked industry about available smaller weapons that the military service can integrate onto its fleet of General Atomics-built MQ-1C Gray Eagle unmanned aircraft systems, Flightglobal reported Wednesday.
James Drew writes the Army’s existing Gray Eagles are built to launch up to four 106-pound Hellfire air-to-ground missiles.
“We would like increased range,” Col. Thomas von Eschenbach, director of the Army’s capability development and integration directorate, was quoted as saying.
“We would like something that doesn’t have to launch off the rail and have a sonic boom.”
Von Eschenbach told Breaking Defense he wants a 30-pound weapon as well as multifunctional electronic payloads for integration into the drone.
General Atomics’ aeronautical systems business upgraded the Gray Eagle to fly for as long as 48 hours and carry an external fuel pod.
Col. Courtney Cote, Army’s UAS project manager, said the Army seeks to procure 36 Gray Eagle extended-range drones for intelligence and special forces teams, Flightglobal reports.
