General Atomics-ASI MQ-9B certifiable version of the Predator B comes in the land SkyGuardian and naval SeaGuardian versions. The potential launch customer for the latter version is expected to be the Indian Navy. © GA-ASI
The persistent UASs in the maritime domain By Luca Peruzzi The use of Unmanned Air Systems (UAS) in the maritime domain to conduct long-range missions in support of intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) operations executed by manned platform is becoming more common in nowadays worldwide navies. However technological developments in the UAS capabilities are pushing towards a wider use of unmanned vs manned platforms, as the former are addressing, developing and testing anti-submarine warfare (ASW) as well as search & rescue (SAR) capabilities, allowing manned platforms concentrating on operations requiring on-board crew. In addition to longer and persistent missions, the Medium Altitude Long Endurance (MALE) UAS platforms offer advantages in terms of system’s managing, personnel, and life-cycle reduced costs, as well as platform survivability as ISR operations require to operate at altitudes and distances from targets significantly lower than advertised manned/unmanned platform highest-level capabilities.
General Atomics’ Sea Guardian The GA-ASI (General Atomics Aeronautical Systems Inc) US company has developed a variant of the Predator B UAS designed to meet NATO STANAG 4671 and to be eligible, in cooperation with global authorities, to meet airworthiness certification standards around the world. The MQ9B is highly modular and is easily configured with 28
EDR | September/October 2020
a variety of payloads in addition to a state-of-theart detect and avoid system developed by GA-ASI, which is a key technology for UAS to fly safely in civil aerospace alongside manned aircraft. In addition to the land-based SkyGuardian variant of the MQ-9B, which was acquired by the UK MoD and selected by Australian and Belgian Defence, GA-ASI also developed a maritime variant called the SeaGuardian, which has attracted international
