General Atomics Aeronautical Systems, Inc. (GA-ASI) is supporting a demonstration that began in March and is featuring two US Army-owned Gray Eagle Extended Range (GE-ER) Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS). GA-ASI – the developer of the GE-ER platform – was contracted by the Army to integrate and operate an array of new capabilities on the versatile UAS platform as part of an ongoing effort to modernize GE-ER for Multi-Domain Operations (MDO).

This demonstration employs improved capabilities, including long-range sensors – like those traditionally flown on manned platforms – and navigation capabilities, as well as rapid integration of advanced sensors and payloads tailorable to specific missions.

As part of this MDO configuration, the next-generation Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) used for the demonstration is the new Eagle-Eye Multi-Mode Radar (MMR) supplied by GA-ASI. The Eagle-Eye radar is an MMR that provides increased performance and couples well with other payloads.

“Eagle-Eye easily detects threats and provides precise location data, which eliminates unknowns for the ground tactical commander on today’s dynamic battlefields,” said GA-ASI President David R. Alexander. “Eagle-Eye and the rest of our MDO upgrades can provide reliable performance, ease of operation and true overmatch capability for the US Army.”

Many of the MDO capabilities showcased in this demo are featured in the latest Gray Eagle model, the Gray Eagle 25M, which is designed to meet the range and accuracy to Detect, Identify, Locate & Report (DILR) stationary and moving targets. The Gray Eagle 25M’s Open Architecture allows easy implementation of Future Airborne Capability Environment (FACE) standards across control interfaces, avionics, datalinks, and provides the ability to integrate a customizable suite of multi-INT sensors providing the Stand-Off Survivability with Stand-In Capability required for Multi-Domain Operations.