Customs and Border Protection (CBP) last Thursday awarded General Atomics a $13.7 million contact to produce and deliver a Predator B Unmanned Aircraft System, the eighth Predator the company will have built for the agency.
General Atomics will build the marinized version of the Predator, known as the Guardian, which can be used for operations over land and sea. The aircraft is scheduled to be delivered during the first quarter of 2011.
CBP currently operates six Predator UAS, including one Guardian version for operations over sea. The other five patrol portions of the nation’s land borders with Canada and Mexico. Several years ago, one Predator crashed in Arizona due to pilot error.
The remaining Predators that General Atomics will build for CBP will be the Guardian variants, which can operate with a multimode search radar. Raytheon [RTN] makes the SeaVue radar currently used in the Guardian.