At any time of the day or night, there are at least three or four U.S. Air Force Predator unmanned air vehicles over Iraq and Afghanistan, according to Tom Cassidy, president and CEO of General Atomics-Aeronautical Systems Inc. (Hall 3, Stand C14).
GA-ASI has delivered more than 110 Predators to the USAF, and early aircraft are being upgraded to the MQ-1L standard with provisions for Hellfire missiles. The fleet is expected to surpass 100,000 flying hours by the time the show opens.
However, GA-ASI is increasingly focused on the new MQ-9 Predator B and its cousin, the Mariner sea-surveillance UAV, particularly for export customers. The first Predator B prototype flew in late 2001, and the first pre-production aircraft - heavier, with more internal fuel and triplicated avionics - flew in October 2003. The USAF is preparing to award GA-ASI a three-year systems development and demonstration contract for the MQ-9.
Four times heavier than the MQ-1, the Predator B is powered by a Honeywell 331-10T turboprop, has an endurance of 24 hours - increased with external fuel - cruises at up to 48,000 feet and can get on-station much faster than its Rotax-powered predecessor. Its standard mission avionics include a satcom antenna, a long-range Raytheon electro-optical turret with a 22-in diameter Cassegrain lens, and the APY-8 Lynx synthetic-aperture radar. It can carry 3,750 pounds on six wing pylons: the USAF plans to arm the airplane with the GBU-38 500-pound JDAM and the GBU-12 laser-guided bomb, although Cassidy notes that the chances of exporting the armed aircraft are "questionable."
GA-ASI has teamed with Lockheed Martin to offer Mariner to the U.S. Navy. Mariner is similar to Predator B, with three main differences. It carries a 360º surveillance radar - GA-ASI has tested the Raytheon Sea Vue and the Telephonics APS-143B. It has a saddle tank that doubles internal fuel capacity to 6,000 pounds and is fitted with the 86-foot wing of the NASA/GA-ASI Altair research UAV.
GA-ASI has borrowed Altair from NASA as its Mariner demonstrator. Before the show, the company planned to fly the aircraft to Alaska for a demonstration to the U.S. Coast Guard. The aircraft will fly out of King Salmon but will be controlled from Juneau, 700 nmi away. In August, Mariner will fly Arctic patrol missions out of Goose Bay in support of a sales campaign in Canada.
Other potential customers include the Australian Customs Service Coastwatch operation and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. One of the Predator B prototypes has completed a month-long operational evaluation with the DHS, patrolling the Mexican border. "We were on station for 30-40 hours and nobody knew we were there," says Cassidy. "We could see people streaming across, we could vector the helos to put teams on the ground, and we could vector the teams to where the people were."
Cassidy is cagey about the company's new jet UAV, "the next generation after Predator B," except to say that it is "going wonderfully well" and is expected to fly next year. Reportedly a stealthy design, the new aircraft is different from the FJ44-powered Predator B, which was completed in 2002 but was converted to a turboprop airplane before it flew.
