Nichols Martin
General Atomics’ aeronautical systems business has announced the 25th anniversary of the company’s Predator A unmanned aircraft system.
The company said Wednesday its Predator A UAS performed maiden flight in July 1994 and achieved operational status in 1995.
U.S. Joint Program Office awarded a major contract to GA in 1994 for Predator A prior to the program’s eventual turnover to the U.S. Air Force.
General Atomics produced Predator A through 2011 and has delivered 320 units of the aircraft globally. Predator A systems have supported almost 141K missions with over 2M flight hours in total. Aircraft under the entire Predator series have flown for a total of almost 6M flight hours.
MQ-9B SkyGuardian, the Predator series’ latest model, is currently under development.
