General Atomics‘ aeronautical systems business has flight-tested a new datalink capability that the U.S. Army is looking to equip on a future, modernized version of the Gray Eagle Extended Range unmanned aircraft system. The company said Thursday it demonstrated GE-ER’s ability to maintain link and accommodate high-bandwidth data rates with satellites in geostationary and […] More

Unmanned aircraft systems made by General Atomics‘ aeronautical systems business demonstrated collaborative sensing with a Lockheed Martin-built sensor within a two-hour flight. General Atomics said Monday it deployed two Avenger UAS that used Lockheed’s Legion Pod to passively gather data on long-range air threats then transmitted the input to a ground-based command center. The Legion […] More

General Atomics’ aeronautical systems business has introduced an unmanned aircraft system that offers short-takeoff and landing capabilities and can carry up to 16 Hellfire missiles in support of armed reconnaissance, attack and armed overwatch missions. Mojave has a 450-HP turboprop engine and enlarged wings with high-lift devices and is based on flight control and avionics […] More

General Atomics‘ aeronautical systems business has completed a series of system-level tests for the Protector RG Mk1 remotely piloted aircraft, which serves as a variant of the MQ-9B SkyGuardian RPA for the British air force. The defense company said Tuesday the future medium-altitude, long-endurance RPA underwent full-scale static strength, environmental and high-intensity radiated field testing, […] More

General Atomics‘ aeronautical systems business has secured a potential $49 million contract to design and build an unmanned aerial system that would serve as an off-board sensing station as part of an Air Force Research Laboratory initiative. The company said Tuesday it will work on an OBSS concept for the next 12 months under an […] More

General Atomics‘ aeronautical systems business transferred ownership of two Reaper unmanned aircraft systems, ground control terminals and support equipment to the U.S. Marine Corps. USMC leased the MQ-9A Block 5 UAS for three years under a contractor-owned, contractor-operated construct before the military branch acquired the drones under the Marine Air-Ground Task Force’s UAS Expeditionary Program […] More

General Atomics‘ aeronautical systems business is applying a modular open-systems approach to an unmanned aircraft system for multi-domain operations in support of the U.S. Army. The company said Thursday its Gray Eagle Extended Range UAS will undergo a system-wide MOSA implementation that will also cover command and control software. The MOSA implementation on GE-ER Increment […] More

Hughes Network Systems and SES have tested the performance of multi-orbit satellite communications that General Atomics‘ aeronautical systems business intends to use on its unmanned aerial vehicle to support intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance operations. Hughes said Wednesday its HM series software-defined modems and resource management system work with SES’ geosynchronous and medium earth orbit satellites […] More

General Atomics‘ aeronautical systems business used autonomous command and control technology to demonstrate aerial manned-unmanned teaming between a King Air 200 aircraft and its MQ-20 Avenger drone. The company said Friday it used a ruggedized tactical control tablet with Autonodyne’s RCU-1000 Advanced Human Machine Interface to inform Avenger’s behavior and provide situational awareness. A General […] More

The aeronautical systems segment of General Atomics was added to nine out of ten pools available on a General Services Administration multiple award, indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contract vehicle and will compete for task orders meant to support the military and the Department of Defense. The ASTRO contract provides for the delivery of operation, maintenance, research and development […] More

General Atomics‘ aeronautical systems business flew an Avenger unmanned aircraft to demonstrate autonomous target tracking with help from a Lockheed Martin-made infrared sensor. During the industry-funded demonstration, Avenger used the infrared search and track capability of Lockheed’s Legion Pod to detect multiple aircraft that were flying at fast speeds, General Atomics said Wednesday. Avenger’s autonomy […] More

General Atomics‘ aeronautical systems business has received additional orders from the U.K. defense ministry for 13 Protector RG Mk1-configured MQ-9B SkyGuardian unmanned aircraft systems. The U.K. ministry exercised a clause on its existing production contract to add to the initial three Protector remotely piloted air systems ordered in September 2020, General Atomics said Thursday. Each […] More