POWAY, Calif.–General Atomics hopes to leverage its class of Predators on the international market by offering a version of the unmanned aerial vehicles without the wing hard points required for weaponizing.
The Missile Technology Control Regime (MCTR), a protocol signed by 34 countries including the United States to prevent the proliferation of missiles, only allows General Atomics to sell armable Predators to NATO countries and Japan, Australia and New Zealand.
General Atomics designed the Predator XP to expand international opportunities to other nations while remaining compliant with the MTCR, which first came into effect in 1987. Christopher Ames, the director of international strategic development for General Atomics, said the XP version offers the same endurance and intelligence, reconnaissance and surveillance (ISR) capabilities of the other Predators.
“It has the 40-hour ISR capability of the Predator,” he said in an interview. “The only differences are there are no wing hard points so you can’t put payloads on the wings.”
The U.S. military has armed Predators, such as the Reaper, with Hellfire missiles, and the UAVs have been instrumental in attacking high profile targets in the war on terrorism.
Ames said General Atomics is nearing an agreement with the United Arab Emirates for the first sales of the XP version, but would not discuss potential quantities. The company is looking to market the XP aircraft to other Middle Eastern countries and throughout Latin America, he said.
General Atomics estimates that it could sell as many as 80-100 Predator XPs internationally, and noted that if MTCR restrictions were loosened to allow armable Predator sales to non-NATO countries, its future foreign sales could climb to 300-400 aircraft.