Matthew Nelson
General Atomics’ aeronautical systems business has secured contracts of undisclosed value to update the capabilities of an unmanned aircraft unit used by the U.S. Army.
The company said Thursday it will modernize the MQ-1C Gray Eagle Extended Range's datalinks, software tools and avionics in a move to augment the aircraft’s operational capacity in austere areas.
The planned update will feature an open architecture model that will enable accelerated integration of long-range sensors and hosting of government-owned software. The update will also optimize autonomous support for a scalable control interface.
“The Army is investing in the Gray Eagle system because they get a tremendous performance increase as a return on their investment,†said David Alexander, president at General Atomics’ aeronautical systems business.
General Atomics held an open competition in a move to update the aircraft’s datalinks. Various companies such as Airbus, L3Harris Technologies, Hughes Network Systems and Ramona Research participated in the competition.
