GA-ASI Upgrades MQ-9B by Developing Long-Range Weapons Capabilities
General Atomics Aeronautical Systems, Inc. (GA-ASI) has announced that new long-range standoff weapons will be added to the MQ-9B SkyGuardian and SeaGuardian.
To ensure the MQ-9B variations can hold targets at risk from longer ranges than traditional methods, GA-ASI is determining how to add extended-range precision weapons by adapting:
- Payload
- Stability
- Range
GA-ASI hopes that at least one of the new weapons will be ready to fly within 2026.
With all performance analytics complete, GA-ASI notes that MQ-9B is performing well in long-range weapons testing, with engineers still fine-tuning technical aspects and weapons to integrate.
Weapons that GA-ASI is considering for MQ-9B integration include:
- Lockheed Martin Joint Air-to-Surface Standoff Missile
- Lockheed Martin Long-Range Anti-Ship Missile
- Kongsberg/Raytheon Joint Strike Missile
GA-ASI also shares a hypothetical mission profile for this integration, which involves the MQ-9B:
- Launching from a base in the Western or Southern Pacific
- Flying to a hold point
- Loitering outside a hostile power’s weapons engagement zone.
- Deploying weapons upon orders
GA-ASI President David R. Alexander said, “MQ-9B continues to impress in the field and we keep adding to our global customer list.”
“We want to continue to build value in the aircraft by expanding into more missions,” Alexander added, “MQ-9B features extraordinary payload capacity, so it only makes sense to add to our mission sets with the ability to carry long-range weapons.”