Unmanned Airborne Anti-Submarine Warfare tested
On 19 January 2021, General Atomics Aeronautical Systems Inc. (GA-ASI) announced that they have completed development and test of the world’s first self-contained anti-submarine warfare (ASW) capability for an unmanned aircraft system (UAS).
A few months earlier, on 24 November 2020, GA-ASI secretively successfully demonstrated an A size sonobuoycarriage, release, process and control from a company-owned MQ-9A Block 5 on the US Navy Pacific Missile test range, of the coast of NAS Point Mugu (CA). The MQ-9 used a real-time direct satellite communications link, when GA-ASI remotely processed bathythermal and acoustic data from the sonobuoys. They accurately generated a target track from the Laguna Flight Operations Facility located at Yuma Proving Grounds (AZ).
The MQ-9A Block 5 successfully deployed ten sonobuoys to initiate prosecution and continuously track a Mk39 Expendable Mobile ASW Training Target over a three-hour period. GA-ASI is developing this first-of-its-kind capability for its new MQ-9B SeaGuardian UAS in partnership with the US Navy under a Cooperative Research and Development Agreement with Naval Air Systems Command, Patuxent River (MD).
The demonstration paves the way for unmanned airborne ASW operations.
GA-ASI first demonstrated a sonobuoy remote processing capability in 2017 from an MQ-9A. Since then, GA-ASI has added a Sonobuoy Management & Control System (SMCS) to monitor and control deployed sonobuoys, and developed a pneumatic sonobuoy dispenser system (SDS) capable of safely carrying and deploying ten US Navy-compliant A size or twenty G size sonobuoys per pod. The MQ-9B SeaGuardian has four wing stations available to carry up to four SDS pods, allowing it to carry and dispense up to forty A size or eighty G size sonobuoys, and remotely perform ASW anywhere in the world.
GA-ASI reported that in a standard configuration, SeaGuardian’s endurance exceeds eighteen hours, encompassing a mission radius of 1,200 nautical miles with eight hours of on-station time for submarine prosecution, providing a low-cost complement to manned aircraft for manned-unmanned teaming operations. GA-ASI has already received orders for this MQ-9B SeaGuardian ASW capability from two separate foreign customers and anticipates demand to be extremely strong for the MQ-9B SeaGuardian with its high-end maritime capabilities and low cost relative to legacy manned maritime platforms.
Photo by GA-ASI / Seapower