The U.S. Air Force Special Operations Command, HQ'd at Hurlburt Field, Fla., has ordered three remotely piloted aircraft for intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) missions from General Atomics' aeronautical systems business. The AFSOC transaction marks ‘s first U.S. contract for the platform, the company said March 6. GA-ASI designed SkyGuardian to automatically take off and land under satellite communications control alone, equipped the aircraft with proprietary detect and avoid technology and recorded over 40 hours of the vehicle’s performance to stay airborne. The AFSOC has used MQ-9A Reaper unmanned aerial vehicles for global missions over the last 14 years. Its move to adopt the MQ-9B comes as the command aims to gain an aerial advantage in permissive and denied operational environments through a UAS-based concept, dubbed Adaptive Airborne Enterprise. (GovConWire 03/06/23)
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