Page 99 - Australian Defence Magazine Feb-Mar 2023

FEBRUARY-MARCH 2023 | WWW.AUSTRALIANDEFENCE.COM.AU
AIRPOWER SKYGUARDIAN 99
systems (SIGINT, COMINT and ELINT), and Embedded GPS/INS (EGI) systems with Selective Availability Anti- Spoofing Modules (SAASM).
ONGOING CAPABILITY ENHANCEMENTS
General Atomics has continuously enhanced its RPAS family, which includes the SkyGuardian and the maritime SeaGuardian, MQ-9A Reaper and MQ-1C Gray Eagle, to meet not just emerging threats, but the changing priorities of the modern battlespace.
Over the past few months alone, the company has dem- onstrated a network relay capability using laser-based com- munications, multi-orbit satellite communications (SAT- COM) and Multi-Domain Operations.
The laser comms network demonstration was completed in late-November 2022, using multiple terminals (ground, mo- bile and airborne), and supported higher data transfer rates of greater than 1 Gigabit per second. Laser comms offers a Low Probability of Intercept and Low Probability of Detection (LPI/LPD) and has superior anti-jam characteristics compared with legacy Radio Frequency (RF) communications systems.
The SATCOM demonstration was carried out with an MQ-9B SeaGuardian in October 2022 and leveraged low-la- tency Medium Earth Orbit (MEO) and Geostationary (GEO) satellites to provide communications at higher data rates.
The first production Multi-Domain Operations enabled variant of GA-ASI’s MQ-9A Reaper was delivered to the US Air Force in November 2022 and enables future integra- tion of Open Mission Systems and sensors that will expand the MQ-9A’s strategic reconnaissance capabilities.
These capabilities effectively make the MQ-9 platform a key node in the battlespace, enabling
Joint All Domain Operations (JADO)
and this was demonstrated during the
recent Rim of the Pacific (RIMPAC) 2022 exercise off Hawaii.
During RIMPAC 2022 an MQ-9B
SeaGuardian flew 80 hours of mis-
sions over 11 flights, with payloads
which included ELINT, COMINT,
Automatic Identification System
(AIS), Anti-Submarine Warfare
(ASW) monitoring and controlling of
sonobuoys dropped by other assets,
high-definition Electro-Optical/Infra-Red (EO/IR) imag- ing systems, Link 16 tactical data link and GA-ASI’s Lynx Multi-Mode Maritime radar.
“SeaGuardian’s multi-domain capabilities allows it to flex from mission to mission and pass real-time sensor data directly to the fleet through Link 16 and satellite feeds to
“AUSTRALIAN TROOPS
HAD OFTEN OPERATED UNDER THE PROTECTION OF US AIR FORCE MQ-1 PREDATOR AND MQ-9 REAPER ARMED RPAS’”
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QUALITY STORAGE & HANDLING SYSTEMS sales@containit.com.au I 1300 603 110 I containit.com.au