Matthew Nelson
General Atomics' aeronautics systems business has entered into an agreement with U.K.-based aerospace subsystem supplier GKN Aerospace to begin full-rate production work for the MQ-9B SkyGuardian remotely piloted aircraft's composite V-tails.
The partnership follows a pre-production agreement that covered GKN Aerospace's development of manufacturing approaches and provision of demonstrator parts, tools and engineering technical data for the aircraft, General Atomics said Tuesday.
Tommy Dunehew, vice president of international strategic development for GA-ASI, said the agreement aims to produce V-tails for the air force of U.K's Protector aircraft fleet as well as MQ-9B RPAs worldwide.
GKN Aerospace will carry out production tasks for the V-tails at its Cowes facility in the U.K.
The two companies have a decade-long strategic partnership and the new agreement is built on the said relationship.
The Royal Air Force employs MQ-9B units as baseline platforms for its Protector RG MK 1 RPA fleet.
