General Atomics Aeronautical Systems, Inc. (GA-ASI) has partnered with Saab to develop an airborne early warning (AEW) mission capability for its MQ-9B family of remotely piloted aircraft.
Announced at the Paris Air Show on 16 June, the new AEW mission package will be compatible with the carrier-capable MQ-9B short take-off and landing (STOL) variant being developed by GA-ASI, as well as the standard MQ-9B air vehicle. AEW flight demonstrations are planned to start on the MQ-9B next year, with the UK Royal Navy’s (RN’s) Carrier Strike Airborne Early Warning requirement already emerging as a major opportunity.
The MQ-9B medium-altitude, long-endurance uncrewed air system has to date been ordered by Belgium (SkyGuardian), Canada (SkyGuardian), India (SkyGuardian and SeaGuardian), Japan (SeaGuardian), Poland (SkyGuardian), Taiwan (SkyGuardian), and the United Kingdom (Protector RG.1). The MQ-9B SkyGuardian has also been procured by the US Air Force in support of Special Operations Command.
GA-ASI has been working on the development of an AEW capability for the MQ-9B for several years, but had not previously revealed its mission package partner for the sensor payload. “We’re developing an affordable AEW solution in cooperation with Saab, the leading provider of AEW&C systems, that will transform our customers’ operations against both sophisticated cruise missiles and simple but dangerous drone swarms,” said GA-ASI President David R. Alexander in a statement. “We’re also making AEW capability possible in areas it doesn’t exist today, such as from some navy warships at sea.”
Saab’s existing airborne early warning and control (AEW&C) portfolio is centred on the GlobalEye AEW&C system (based on the Global 6000/6500 business jet platform) and its associated Erieye ER extended range radar. Erieye ER is an adaptive S-band active electronically scanned array (AESA) multi-mode radar based on Gallium Nitride (GaN) technology.
The same core GaN AESA radar technology is now being scaled and repackaged in pod form for the MQ-9B AEW application. According to GA-ASI, the capability will support long range detection and target tracking, and flexible combat system integration, with data downlinked over line-of-sight and SATCOM links.
“We are bringing our exceptional ability to detect and track challenging objects to customers looking to use MQ-9B to meet their specific needs,” said Carl-Johan Bergholm, head of Saab’s business area Surveillance. “This unmanned medium-altitude AEW solution, leveraging core competencies of both companies, has excellent potential to complement our existing AEW&C portfolio and provide customers with yet another cutting-edge capability.”
The AEW mission package will be suitable for all MQ-9B variants according to GA-ASI, including the SkyGuardian and SeaGuardian models, the UK’s Protector RG.1, and the new MQ-9B STOL model currently in development. The latter version is being pitched by GA-ASI to navies operating short takeoff vertical landing aircraft carriers or through-deck amphibious ships.
In April this year the UK Ministry of Defence issued a request for information (RFI) for a future Carrier Strike Airborne Early Warning capability to succeed the RN’s Crowsnest capability. A role-fit airborne surveillance and control radar/mission system hosted in the Merlin HM2 helicopter, Crowsnest is currently planned to retire at the end of 2029.
According to the RFI, the Carrier Strike Airborne Early Warning capability requirement calls for the provision and support of an airborne surveillance system that operates from the Queen Elizabeth-class aircraft carriers and provides persistent 24 hours surveillance. The MoD said that it anticipated that there will be “very limited, if not a single, supplier solution(s) to meet the requirement in terms of performance and time”.
UK defence procurement minister Maria Eagle last month confirmed that an AEW-configured MQ-9B was being considered as a successor to Crowsnest. “Through the MQ-9 International Cooperation Support Partnership, of which the United Kingdom is a signatory, the Royal Navy has established that the General Atomics MQ-9 can be modified to operate from the Queen Elizabeth-class carriers,” Eagle said in a 19 May parliamentary reply. “As such, the MQ-9 is being considered as a candidate for the RN’s requirement for Carrier Strike Airborne Early Warning following the planned withdrawal of the Crowsnest Airborne Early Warning system when it reaches the end of its service life.”
A demonstration of GA-ASI’s Mojave STOL remotely-piloted air system from HMS Prince of Wales in November 2023 has informed the RN’s approach to the potential introduction of a uncrewed fixed-wing AEW solution as a replacement for Crowsnest. Under Project ‘Desert Skies’, the Mojave air vehicle was successfully launched from, and recovered to, the ship unassisted. The MQ-9B STOL integrates a wing and tail kit inspired by the smaller Mojave, enabling the larger and higher performance MQ-9B to operate from through-deck ships.
Saab has previously received small-scale Maritime Early Warning innovation contracts through the UK Defence and Security Accelerator’s Look Out! Competition. One of these has looked to mature and de-risk a self-contained digital radar pod development for both monostatic and multistatic AEW; a subsequent Look Out! contact was secured in partnership with AI house Mind Foundry.
