POWAY – A pioneer maker of remotely piloted aircraft is adding a new international customer: Japan.
General Atomics Aeronautical Systems Inc. announced earlier this month (Aug. 15) that it will sell the Japanese government two MQ-9B SeaGuardian systems. The Japan Coast Guard (JCG) will take delivery in 2025. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.
Japan has been trying out the technology since 2022, using aircraft owned by the North County builder and operated by contract employees.
“Since JCG started operating SeaGuardians, they have been used for various JCG missions,” GA-ASI CEO Linden P. Blue said in a statement, “including supporting search and rescue and disaster response specifically during the 7.6 magnitude earthquake early this year near the Noto Peninsula of Ishikawa Prefecture and maritime surveillance during the 2023 G-7 Summit in Hiroshima, and the system has performed efficiently and effectively.”
The SeaGuardian carries sensors tailored to its task: a multi-mode maritime surface-search radar with an Inverse Synthetic Aperture Radar (ISAR) imaging mode, an Automatic Identification System (AIS) receiver, and High-Definition – Full-Motion Video sensor equipped with optical and infrared cameras.
GA-ASI said the sensor suite enables real-time detection and identification of surface vessels over thousands of square nautical miles and provides automatic tracking of maritime targets and correlation of AIS transmitters with radar tracks.
GA-ASI has added software it calls Optix+ to the mix. Optix+ gathers information from the aircraft’s sensors, as well as other data sources, displaying the full picture of surveillance information for its operator.
GA-ASI counts the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Belgium and India as customers for its SeaGuardian and SkyGuardian aircraft. Typically the business receives revenue from the sale as well as revenue from annual support contracts.
General Atomics Aeronautical Systems is an affiliate of San Diego-based General Atomics. The businesses are privately held.
SeaGuardian Participates in RIMPAC
Separately, the U.S. Navy put the SeaGuardian aircraft to work during the recent Rim of the Pacific (RIMPAC) training exercise earlier this summer.
The aircraft flew nearly 100 hours during four weeks of war games held in and around the Hawaiian Islands. In some ways, it was a repeat performance; SeaGuardian participated in a similar exercise in 2022. On both occasions, the aircraft provided intelligence, surveillance, reconnaissance and targeting information to Navy commanders.
For the 2024 exercise, SeaGuardian deployed sonobuoys — expendable sonar buoys approximately 3 feet long and 5 inches in diameter — which are used in anti-submarine warfare. After it deployed the sonobuoys, the aircraft gathered data from them. A SeaGuardian can carry up to 40 sonobuoys, the company said.
The aircraft also used Link 16 radio system as well as the SeaVue multi-role radar from Raytheon – which is part of aerospace contractor RTX (NYSE: RTX).
GA-ASI marketing materials say its uncrewed aircraft costs much less to operate than its crewed counterparts: approximately $5,000 per hour versus $35,000 per hour.
Though the U.S. Marine Corps has a fleet of GA-ASI remotely piloted aircraft, the U.S. Navy is not yet a customer.
One of the company’s longest customers is the U.S. government, which used GA-ASI’s Predator aircraft in the Balkans conflict during the mid-1990s.
General Atomics Aeronautical Systems Inc.
FOUNDED: 1992 CEO: Linden P. Blue
HEADQUARTERS: Poway
BUSINESS: Maker of remotely piloted aircraft and subsystems
WEBSITE: ga-asi.com
CONTACT: 858-312-2810
NOTABLE: GA-ASI has delivered more than 1,000 remotely piloted aircraft, which have logged more than 8 million flight hours
