The Avenger — a possible successor to the MQ-9 Reaper in the Air Force unmanned aircraft fleet — made its first three flights in April.
General Atomics Aeronautical Systems Inc. designed the Avenger to improve upon the capabilities that have made its Reaper and MQ-1 Predator so effective, said Thomas Cassidy, president of the Air Systems Group for GA-ASI.
At 41 feet long with a 66-foot wingspan, the Avenger is slightly larger than the Reaper. But the real difference is propulsion: the jet-powered Avenger can fly 460 miles per hour, about twice as fast as its turboprop-equipped Reaper.
Just like the Reaper, the Avenger will carry 500-pound bombs with GBU-38 Joint Direct Attack Munitions with GPS navigations and laser guidance kits attached. In all, the Avenger can carry 3,000 pounds of weapons and sensors.
This unmanned aircraft is the first outfitted with a weapons bay, which will reduce the Avenger’s radar signature. It also has the flexibility to carry extra fuel tanks or a wide-area surveillance pod inside the bay. “If you hang the weapons from the wings like the Reaper and Predator, then it produces the bumps and corners on the edges that radar bounce off of that reveal the shape and size of the aircraft,” said Philip Coyle, an analyst for the Center for Defense Information.
The Avenger requires a caveat as the possible successor, though, because the Air Force hasnÂ’t yet signed a contract for a next-generation unmanned aircraft.
In a statement, Air Force officials commended General Atomics for building the Avenger. But Capt. Stacy Orlowsky, a service spokeswoman, said it wasn’t a done deal to expect the Avenger to join the Air Force fleet.“If the Air Force establishes new UAS requirements, we anticipate an open competition to select the best material solution,” she said.
This isn’t the first time General Atomics has taken this approach. It developed the Reaper and Predator the same way — not waiting for contracts from any of the services.
Like the Predator and Reaper, the Avenger and its near-stealth capability could create another unending appetite from the services, said Tom Ehrhard, a senior fellow at the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments.
General Atomics will build an all-reconnaissance version of the Avenger when the Air Force completes development of a wide-area surveillance pod, Cassidy said.
The service is to install 10 wide-area surveillance sensors under the Reaper starting in 2010. Called Gorgon Stare, the sensors will allow airmen to film a 4-kilometer radius from 12 different angles. But itÂ’s still too early to tell if this would be the pod installed under the Avenger, officials said.
The Avenger is designed to fly 20 continuous hours, or 22 with extra fuel tanks — a few less than the Reaper’s 25-hour flight time. Its operational altitude would be 10,000 feet higher than the Reaper with a ceiling of 60,000 feet.
Commanders have come to value unmanned aircraftÂ’s ability to loiter over targets. The AvengerÂ’s 20- to 22-hour flying time combined with the ability to fly twice as fast as the Reaper will increase that loiter time, depending on how far the target is from the AvengerÂ’s home base, Coyle said.
Cassidy said his company might discover during testing that the Avenger is even faster than 460 mph.“One of the most important capabilities for a UAV is its ability to loiter, so you don’t care how fast it is then, but it does matter how fast it can get there and back,” he said.