GA-ASI is Low-Risk Option for MQ-25A CBARS Carrier UAV Competition

General Atomics Sea Avenger Predator C in MQ-25A Configuration

General Atomics Says It’s Well-Positioned as Low-Risk Option for Carrier Drone Competition
ARLINGTON, Va. — General Atomics (GA) has never built a tailhook aircraft for the Navy but that is not stopping it from competing with the Boeings, Lockheed Martins and Northrop Grummans of the world to design the MQ-25A Stingray aerial refueling unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) for operation from aircraft carriers.
Doug Hardison, director of Marine Corps and Navy business development for GA, told Seapower his company’s leadership in fielding unmanned combat aircraft enables it to approach the problem in a different way from other companies.
The company’s proposed Sea Avenger unmanned aerial vehicle is “a natural,” said Chuck Wright, director of GA’s MQ-25A program, noting that the winged-body Sea Avenger can carry a lot of fuel, has low drag and features a large amount of space, weight and power available for payloads.
Carrier suitability will be the biggest challenge for GA in the competition, said Wright, a former Navy carrier pilot.
“We’ve retained the core of the team that started in 2011. Key engineer leads have been in the program for five to seven years,” he said.

By MC1 Peter D. Lawlor [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

 Hardison, a former Marine Corps helicopter pilot, pointed out that GA’s work on the EMALS Electromagnetic Aircraft Launch System and AAG Advanced Arresting Gear programs has given the company a lot of insight into carrier operations.

MQ-25 program validates future mission control system through simulated test | NAVAIR - U.S. Navy Naval Air Systems Command - Navy and Marine Corps Aviation Research, Development, Acquisition, Test and Evaluation

A team from NAVAIR simulates the operation of the
future MQ-25 during a demo of the Unmanned Carrier Aviation
Mission Control System (UMCS) at NAS
Patuxent River, Md. in April 2017. (U.S. Navy photo)

Apr 13, 2017

NAVAL AIR SYSTEMS COMMAND, PATUXENT RIVER, Md. -- The Navy’s MQ-25 program completed its first demonstration representing how the mission control system located aboard the aircraft carrier will control and transmit information to an unmanned air vehicle in the future.

The April 11 demonstration validated the first build of the MD-5 Unmanned Carrier Aviation Mission Control System (UMCS), a combined hardware and software product, using representative shipboard equipment and a simulated air vehicle at NAS Patuxent River.

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•  spendergast: Can Stingray give the Carrier Air Wing the reach to do its job
• spendergast: Shoemaker evolving requirements and mission for MQ-25 UAS Carrier Fit
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•  MQ-25 Unmanned Air System | NAVAIR - U.S. Navy Naval Air Systems Command - Navy and Marine Corps Aviation Research, Development, Acquisition, Test and Evaluation