Japan Maritime Defense Force Selects MQ-9B SeaGuardians

MQ-9 SeaGuardian
PACIFIC OCEAN (April 21, 2021) An MQ-9 SeaGuardian unmanned maritime surveillance aircraft system flies over Independence-variant littoral combat ship USS Coronado (LCS 4) during U.S. Pacific Fleet’s Unmanned Systems Integrated Battle Problem (UxS IBP) 21, April 21 (U.S. Navy photo by Chief Mass Communication Specialist Shannon Renfroe)
The Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force (JMSDF) has selected the General Atomics Aeronautical Systems, Inc. (GA-ASI) SeaGuardian Remotely Piloted Aircraft (RPA) systems for its Long Endurance Unmanned Aerial Vehicle program.
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General Atomics press release

This follows JMSDF use of SeaGuardian since May 2023 as part of its Medium-Altitude, Long Endurance (MALE) RPA System Trial Operations Project.

SeaGuardian has been used by JMSDF to conduct various tests including whether unmanned aircraft can supplant some of the missions currently accomplished with manned aircraft. SeaGuardian is a MALE RPA system that can fly for 24 hours or more, depending on the configuration.

GA-ASI has strengthened its Maritime Wide Area Surveillance (MWAS) for Japan with Optix+, which gathers information from the SeaGuardian sensors, as well as other data sources, displaying the full picture of surveillance information for its operator. This functionality makes it easy to task and direct its Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance (ISR) information in real time. GA-ASI’s Optix+ software suite rapidly correlates and exploits collected data into an easily shared common operational picture. Having multi-source correlated data enables automatic detection of anomalous behaviors over waters.

SeaGuardian features two multi-mode maritime surface-search radars with an Inverse Synthetic Aperture Radar (ISAR) imaging mode, an Automatic Identification System (AIS) receiver, and a High-Definition – Full-Motion Video sensor equipped with optical and infrared cameras as well as electronic intelligence receivers. This 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 and electronic intelligence tracks.

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Naval News contacted the JMSDF to learn more. You may read about the new details at this link:

Check out our recent coverage of the SeaGuardian at Euronaval 2024:

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