General Atomics Aeronautical Systems Inc., Poway, California, is awarded a $26,866,441 firm-fixed-price contract that procures two MQ-9A Reaper unmanned air systems (UAS); one dual control mobile ground control station; one modular data center; and one mobile ground control station for Group 5 UAS Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance services/persistent strike efforts. Work will be performed in Yuma, Arizona (40%); and various locations outside the continental U.S. (60%), and is expected to be complete by December 2020. The U.S. Naval Air Systems Command, Patuxent River, Maryland, is the contracting activity (N00019-20-C-0031).
The General Atomics MQ-9 Reaper (sometimes called Predator B) is an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) capable of remotely controlled or autonomous flight operations developed by General Atomics Aeronautical Systems (GA-ASI) primarily for the United States Air Force (USAF). The MQ-9 and other UAVs are referred to as Remotely Piloted Vehicles/Aircraft (RPV/RPA) by the USAF to indicate their human ground controllers. The MQ-9 is the first hunter-killer UAV designed for long-endurance, high-altitude surveillance. The MQ-9 is a larger, heavier, and more capable aircraft than the earlier General Atomics MQ-1 Predator; it can be controlled by the same ground systems used to control MQ-1s.
