Customs and Border Protection (CBP) last Thursday awarded General Atomics a $13.7 million contact to produce and deliver a maritime variant of the Predator B Unmanned Aircraft System (UAS), the eighth Predator the company will have built for the agency. General Atomics will build the Guardian version of Predator, which can be used for operations over land and sea. The aircraft is scheduled to be delivered later this year. CBP currently operates six Predator UAS, including one Guardian version for operations over sea. The other five aircraft 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 operate with a multi-mode search radar and an electro-optic/infrared camera optimized for maritime operations. Raytheon [RTN] supplies its SeaVue radar for the Guardian.
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