Monday, March 13, 2017

Grey Eagle UAV Deployment




U.S. deploys attack drones to South Korea amid tension with North

By James Pearson

SEOUL (Reuters) - The United States has started to deploy attack drones to South Korea, a U.S. military spokesman said on Monday, days after it began to deploy an advanced anti-missile system to help counter the ballistic missile capabilities and "continued provocative actions" by isolated North Korea.

Ballistic Missiles and NBC Weapon Programme of North Korea »
Indian Defence Review
The drones, Gray Eagle UAS Unmanned Aerial Systems coming to South Korea are part of a broader plan to deploy a company of the attack drones with every division in the U.S. Army, the spokesman said. The Gray Eagle is a remotely controlled attack drone made by U.S.-based General Atomics.

Installation Overview --Kunsan Air Base, South Korea
"The UAS equipped with the Lynx SAR/GMTI radar and MTS EO/IR ball adds significant all weather intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance capability to U.S. Forces Korea and our ROK partners," United States Forces Korea spokesman Christopher Bush said in a statement. They will be stationed at Kunsan Air Base, 180 km (112 miles) south of Seoul, Bush said, and would be permanently based in South Korea. The MQ-1C is also capable of ground strike with hellfire missiles against fixed and moving targets.

RPV Missile Defense Capabilities

Gray Eagle MQ1C is a variant with a different engine and lower 29,000 ft combat ceiling of the GA-ASI Predator B which has demonstrated BMD Detection and Tracking using a pair of UAV with enhanced MTS ball sensors .
Sensor Enables Reaper Drones to Track Ballistic Missiles

Pair of GA-ASI Predator B Detects and Tracks Ballistic Missile in Pacific Dragon Exercise - UASweekly.com

General Atomics Aeronautical Systems, Inc. (GA ASI), a leading manufacturer of Remotely Piloted Aircraft (RPA) systems, radars, electro-optic and related mission systems solutions, today announced that through a contract with the Missile Defense Agency (MDA), it executed a missile tracking test as part of the Pacific Dragon (PD) exercise held June 26-28 off the coast of the Pacific Missile Range Facility (PMRF) in Kauai, Hawaii.

Pacific Dragon is a trilateral Ballistic Missile Defense (BMD) tracking event between the U.S. Navy, Japan Maritime Self Defense Force, and Republic of Korea Navy. The biennial exercise focuses on improving tactical and technical coordination among its participants, including the detection, tracking and reporting of ballistic targets.

Two Predator® B RPA equipped with Raytheon Multi-spectral Targeting Systems-B (MTS-B) Electro-optical Infrared (EO/IR) turrets were used to detect and track a Ballistic Missile (BM) target as part of an ongoing program with MDA. The Predator B aircraft also participated in exercises with U.S. Navy vessels.

“The test provided valuable data in our ongoing effort to develop an effective airborne missile defense capability,” said Linden Blue, CEO, GA-ASI.

A technologically advanced derivative of the combat-proven Predator, the multi-mission Predator B/MQ-9 Reaper® is a long-endurance, medium- to high-altitude RPA that can be used for surveillance, military reconnaissance, and targeting missions. The current aircraft configuration features an extensive payload capacity and is powered by a Honeywell turboprop engine with an altitude of over 45,000 feet. It is currently operational with the U.S. Air Force, U.S. Department of Homeland Security, NASA, and a number of NATO countries.

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