General Atomics To Provide Advanced Sensor For USAF Reaper Drones For $133M

General Atomics has been awarded a $133 million worth contract to provide advanced sensor for the US Air Force’s Reaper drones as part of the modernization effort to upgrade MQ-9 Reaper surveillance and attack UAS.

According to Department of defense press release, the contractor will complete the development, integration, and flight test of an advanced sensor into an MQ-9 unmanned aerial vehicle in realistic test scenarios at continental U.S. and outside the continental U.S. locations.

The work will be performed in San Diego, California. The performance period is from August 2018 through October 2021, the release said Monday.

Earlier this year, General Atomics had won a $14.2 million order to extend the Reaper's range, payload data multiplexing, and beyond-line-of-sight control, to enable the upgraded Reaper Block 5 unmanned aircraft to carry external fuel pods to extend their mission range; add a Ku-band beyond line-of-sight and satellite communications data link control; and the BADDC data routers.