Mary-Louise Hoffman
A General Atomics affiliate secured a contract to supply eight extended-range units of the Reaper unmanned aircraft system and is scheduled to commence initial aircraft delivery in the winter.
The Marine Unmanned Aerial Vehicle Squadron-3 plans to use the MQ-9A ER platform for littoral regiment training as part of the Force Design 2030 strategy, the company said Sunday.
General Atomics Aeronautical Systems Inc. designed the variant to have an endurance capacity of more than 30 hours and equipped the aircraft with various features such as a triple redundant avionics architecture, a multimode radar and wingborne fuel pods.
Patrick Shortsleeve, vice president for Department of Defense strategic development at GA-ASI, said the system will add an intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance capability to the Marine Air Ground Task Force.
GA-ASI received the order through the U.S. Air Force’s potential $7.4 billion Agile Reaper Enterprise Solution program.
