Australian Defence Force Selects GA-ASI’s MQ-9B for Project Air 7003
5.12.2019 04:28:00 EET | Business Wire | Press release
General Atomics Aeronautical Systems, Inc. (GA-ASI), the world’s leading manufacturer of Remotely Piloted Aircraft Systems (RPAS), has been advised that the Australian Government has selected GA-ASI’s MQ-9B SkyGuardian® variant to provide the Armed RPAS for the Australian Defence Force (ADF) under Project Air 7003. This follows the Government’s announcement in November 2018 that GA-ASI would provide Armed RPAS to the ADF. The ADF expects to take first delivery in the early 2020s.
This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20191204005989/en/
The Australian Government selected GA-ASI’s MQ-9B SkyGuardian® variant to provide the Armed RPAS for the Australian Defence Force under Project Air 7003. (Photo: Business Wire)
“We have worked closely with the ADF to determine the right RPAS to meet their needs,” said Linden Blue, CEO, GA-ASI. “MQ-9B will provide the all-weather, multi-mission support, and interoperability that the ADF requires. We look forward to working closely with our Australian industry partners to provide a highly capable RPAS to the ADF, while creating high-tech jobs in Australia.”
The ADF joins other top-tier military forces in choosing a GA-ASI RPAS because of its proven multi-role combat performance. MQ-9B is part of GA-ASI’s Predator® series of RPAS, which is the world’s most trusted and capable armed Medium-altitude, Long-endurance (MALE) RPAS, and hails from a family of aircraft that has flown more than six million flight hours.
The UK Royal Air Force (RAF) is acquiring the MQ-9B as part of its Protector RG Mk1 program and is scheduled for first delivery in the early 2020s. The Government of Belgium has approved Belgian Defense to negotiate for the acquisition of MQ-9B to meet the nation’s RPA requirements.
MQ-9B development is the result of a five-year, company funded program to deliver an unmanned aircraft system to meet the stringent airworthiness type-certification requirements of NATO and civil aviation authorities throughout the world. MQ-9B is provisioned for the GA-ASI-developed Detect and Avoid (DAA) system, which consists of air-to-air radar, Traffic alert and Collision Avoidance System (TCAS II), and Automatic Dependent Surveillance-Broadcast (ADS-B). The MQ-9B is built for all-weather performance with lightning protection, damage tolerance, and de-icing system.
GA-ASI announced its intention to offer a MALE RPAS to the ADF during AVALON 2017 with the launch of Team Reaper Australia, a robust group of Australian industry partners. The team currently consists of ten world-class Australian companies providing a range of innovative sensor, communication, manufacturing and life-cycle support capabilities including Cobham (lead industry partner), CAE, Raytheon, Flight Data Systems, TAE Aerospace, Quickstep, AirSpeed, Collins Aerospace, Ultra, and SentientVision.
Hi-resolution images of the MQ-9B SkyGuardian are available to qualified media outlets from the GA-ASI media contact list.
About GA-ASI
General Atomics Aeronautical Systems, Inc. (GA-ASI), an affiliate of General Atomics, is a leading designer and manufacturer of proven, reliable Remotely Piloted Aircraft (RPA) systems, radars, and electro-optic and related mission systems, including the Predator® RPA series and the Lynx® Multi-mode Radar. With nearly 6 million flight hours, GA-ASI provides long-endurance, mission-capable aircraft with integrated sensor and data link systems required to deliver persistent flight that enables situational awareness and rapid strike. The company also produces a variety of ground control stations and sensor control/image analysis software, offers pilot training and support services, and develops meta-material antennas. For more information, visit www.ga-asi.com.
Predator, SkyGuardian and Lynx are registered trademarks of General Atomics Aeronautical Systems, Inc.
To view this piece of content from cts.businesswire.com, please give your consent at the top of this page.
View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20191204005989/en/
Contact information
Steven Henden
General Atomics Aeronautical Systems, Inc.
+1 (858) 524-8101
ASI-MediaRelations@ga-asi.com
About Business Wire
For more than 50 years, Business Wire has been the global leader in press release distribution and regulatory disclosure.
Subscribe to releases from Business Wire
Subscribe to all the latest releases from Business Wire by registering your e-mail address below. You can unsubscribe at any time.
Latest releases from Business Wire
83% of Restaurants Are Invisible in AI Search: New Uberall Report Reveals the Discovery Gap Reshaping the Quick Service Restaurant Industry7.5.2026 20:35:00 EEST | Press release
Uberall, the global leader in location marketing technology, today released Fast Food, Faster Discovery: The 2026 GEO Playbook for Multi-Location QSRs — the industry’s first benchmark report measuring how AI assistants recommend restaurants and how multi-location QSR (Quick-Service Restaurant) brands can adapt their local marketing strategies for AI-mediated search. This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20260507962493/en/ Fast Food, Faster Discovery: Why AI Is the New Drive-Thru The report draws on Uberall’s proprietary GEO Studio benchmark data and aggregated performance metrics from its global QSR customer base. Its central finding: as consumer restaurant discovery rapidly shifts from traditional search to AI assistants, the majority of QSR locations are effectively absent from AI-generated recommendations — at the exact moment AI is becoming consumers’ primary discovery channel. This visibility gap arrives as the Q
Department of Health - Abu Dhabi and ŌURA Partner to Advance Preventive Health in Abu Dhabi7.5.2026 19:57:00 EEST | Press release
Department of Health—Abu Dhabi (DoH) and ŌURA, maker of the world’s leading smart ring, Oura Ring, today announced a joint research programme to study how continuous wearable data can advance preventive health. The collaboration marks the beginning of a long-term partnership to advance Abu Dhabi’s prevention-first, data-driven healthcare agenda, and will initially focus on women’s health and cardiometabolic risk. This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20260507073495/en/ HE Mansoor Al Mansoori (Left) and Tom Hale (Right) The collaboration builds on Abu Dhabi’s advanced public health infrastructure and longitudinal health data assets, integrating them with ŌURA’s real-time, continuous insights across key health indicators. Together, this creates a strong foundation for understanding health at a population level, enabling the identification of risk factors and supporting a shift from reactive care to more proactive, perso
Rave Sues Apple in Five Countries Over App Store Removal7.5.2026 18:03:00 EEST | Press release
Rave Inc. (“Rave” or the “Company”), the developer and operator of the Rave app, a cross-platform co-viewing “super app” with more than 225 million downloads, today announced that it has filed antitrust lawsuits against Apple in five countries: the United States, Canada, Brazil, the Netherlands and Russia. The lawsuits challenge Apple’s unilateral and anticompetitive decision to remove Rave from its App Store, thereby distorting competition, reducing consumer choice in co-viewing functionalities and increasing the costs to users of switching between iPhone and competing smartphone devices. Rave operates a social entertainment app that allows users in different locations to watch their favorite videos, movies, and TV shows together in real time across multiple operating systems and devices, including iOS, Android, Windows and macOS, and communicate through chat and voice. Rave alleges that this cross-platform experience threatened Apple’s closed iOS ecosystem, which Apple maintains by l
emnify named a Visionary in the 2026 Gartner ® Magic Quadrant™ for Managed IoT Connectivity Services, Worldwide7.5.2026 18:00:00 EEST | Press release
emnify, a global provider of cloud-native IoT connectivity solutions, today announced it has been recognized as a Visionary in the 2026 Gartner® Magic Quadrant™ for Managed IoT Connectivity Services, Worldwide. This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20260507642325/en/ emnify named a Visionary in the 2026 Gartner® Magic Quadrant™ for Managed IoT Connectivity Services, Worldwide. Get the report As a first-time recognized vendor, emnify believes this recognition reflects its forward-looking approach to IoT connectivity, building a platform designed to anticipate where enterprise needs are heading rather than replicating the connectivity models of the past. "We feel being named a Visionary in our first appearance in the Gartner® Magic Quadrant™ recognizes our deliberate strategy of the last decade: from owning our core network and pioneering satellite-cellular convergence on a single SIM, to embedding fine-tuned AI models
UAE Commits $49bn to Local Manufacturers7.5.2026 17:00:00 EEST | Press release
The United Arab Emirates (UAE) pledged $49 billion in industrial procurement opportunities on Monday and announced plans to localize more than 5,000 products as the Gulf state doubled down on its industrial sovereignty agenda. This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20260507855698/en/ UAE commits $49bn to local manufacturers (Photo: AETOSWire) Dr. Sultan Al Jaber, UAE Minister of Industry and Advanced Technology, made the announcement at the opening of the fifth edition of Make it in the Emirates, which follows a period that has tested the region. “History remembers the challenges nations face. But it also remembers how nations respond to them and what they build next,” he said. TA’ZIZ announced $40.5 billion worth of agreements aimed at expanding UAE chemical production capacity. The opportunities include offtakes and $2 billion of financing for the UAE’s first world-scale methanol plant. A $270 million National Indust
In our pressroom you can read all our latest releases, find our press contacts, images, documents and other relevant information about us.
Visit our pressroom