Aviation Week
• Tony Osborne
Saab says customers are showing emerging interest in combining its business-jet-based GlobalEye airborne early-warning platform with General Atomics’ LoyalEye system, fitted to the MQ-9B SkyGuardian uncrewed aircraft. The proposed pairing would bring manned and uncrewed AEW capabilities into a single offering.
General Atomics
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Saab says customers are showing emerging interest in combining its business-jet-based GlobalEye airborne early-warning platform with General Atomics’ LoyalEye system, fitted to the MQ-9B SkyGuardian uncrewed aircraft. The proposed pairing would bring manned and uncrewed AEW capabilities into a single offering.
An exercise involving Anduril’s YFQ-44A and General Atomics’ YFQ-42A is helping the U.S. Air Force determine how small teams will control, maintain and rapidly return its future uncrewed fighters to service. The effort highlights the operational challenges beyond procuring hundreds of relatively inexpensive autonomous combat aircraft.
The U.S. Air Force plans to field a more affordable, mass-producible successor to the MQ-9 Reaper by 2031 while developing a broader family of aerial targets. The systems would range from expendable quadcopters to reusable drones capable of mimicking fifth-generation fighters and UAV swarms.
The U.S. Army and Mexico’s Army signed a declaration of intent allowing Mexico to procure UAS and counter-UAS systems through the Defense Department’s digital marketplace to combat organized crime. Separately, India signed a ₹1,943 crore contract with General Atomics to lease two MQ-9B SeaGuardian aircraft to the Navy for 30 months.
General Atomics AeroTec Systems is partnering with Sweden’s Trakka Systems to offer an integrated surveillance sensor package for the upgraded Do228 NXT. Separately, BAE Systems’ FalconWorks and Turkey’s TUALCOM signed an MoU to explore resilient autonomy technologies spanning anti-jam communications, assured navigation and electronic warfare.
Qinetiq-owned Inzpire has been awarded an initial three-year contract to deliver multinational training for General Atomics Aeronautical Systems’ MQ-9B and the RAF Protector fleets. The company says the program could eventually support up to 37 instructor crews as it scales training capacity.
High activity
General Atomics is pursuing expanded strike roles for the MQ-9B and its Gambit integration via deals with Kongsberg and MBDA. Meanwhile, Raytheon UK unveiled Red Kite—an affordable sovereign precision munition built on the Stormbreaker airframe. BAE, Boeing and Saab also signed to advance a UK Hawk replacement built around Boeing’s T-7 training system, as Leonardo presses LEO and missile-defense programs alongside an Indonesian M-346F fighter sale.
High activity
Riyadh Air placed orders for 34 additional widebody aircraft on the opening day of the Farnborough International Airshow, scaling commitments with Airbus and Boeing months after launching scheduled passenger service. Separate reporting pegged Boeing’s opening-day tally at nearly 150 orders, with Airbus countering later, while Pratt & Whitney and British Airways secured the first major deals of the day.
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