General Atomics Aeronautical Systems Inc. (GA-ASI) announced Feb. 28 that it will offer its Reaper remotely piloted aircraft (RPA) for the Australian Defence Force’s Project Air 7003 program.
Project Air 7003 is intended to give Australia a medium-altitude, long-endurance RPA and ground control station. The Reaper, also known as Predator B, has already been acquired by the U.S., British, French, Italian and Spanish air forces.
“We have been working closely with the Australian Defence Force … to understand the operational needs of Air 7003 and are confident that our RPA system … solution will provide mature, persistent, interoperable support to Australia’s warfighters,” said Linden Blue, GA-ASI’s chief executive officer.
At Australia’s Avalon 2017 airshow, GA-ASI revealed that its “Team Reaper Australia” teammates are Britain’s Cobham, Canada’s CAE Australia [CAE], Raytheon Australia [RTN] and Flight Data Systems.
Cobham already supports Reaper ground control station maintenance for the United Kingdom’s Royal Air Force, and CAE provides academic, simulator and live-flying training to the U.S. Air Force’s Reaper aircrews. Raytheon and Flight Data Systems touted their integration and innovation skills, respectively.