US Army Ready to Deploy New UAS

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The U.S. Army has completed its New Equipment Training (NET) for the MQ-1C ER Gray Eagle Extended Range. The MQ-1C is a new Unmanned Aircraft System (UAS) produced by General Atomics Aeronautical Systems (GA-ASI).

The Gray Eagle is a medium-altitude, long-endurance (MALE) UAS, developed for the United States Army as an upgrade of the company’s MQ-1 Predator. Gray Eagle’s Heavy Fuel Engine (HFE) supports the Army’s “single fuel in the battlefield” concept and provides increased horsepower and significantly improved fuel efficiency, utilizing either jet or diesel fuel, according to the company’s website.

This UAS is dedicated to direct operational control by Army field commanders. Its expansive mission set includes, but is not limited, to wide-area Intelligence Surveillance and Reconnaissance (ISR), convoy protection, Improvised Explosive Device (IED) detection and defeat, close air support, communications relay, and weapons delivery missions.

The training covered new maintenance procedures, manuals and ground support equipment associated with the UAS.  The training not only prepared the current Army Company – 160th Foxtrot – to operate the UAS, it also prepared Echo Company to become the Army’s second Company to be trained to operate the Gray Eagle Extended Range, according to uasvision.com.

David R. Alexander, GA-ASI president, said: “Adding a second Company to operate the MQ-1C ER is a testament to the confidence the Army has in the performance of this UAS.” “The MQ-1C ER provides significant enhancements in capability over the MQ-1C, delivering increased reliability, range and capacity for our Army customer over the previous version.”