GA-ASI Picks Belgian Companies to Support MQ-9B Development

General Atomics Aeronautical Systems, Inc. (GA-ASI) has selected two Belgian companies -- ALX Systems and Coexpair -- to support the development of the MQ-9B SkyGuardian Remotely Piloted Aircraft (RPA) and other advanced RPA-related projects.

The Belgian Ministry of Defense announced in 2020 that it will acquire the MQ-9B SkyGuardian with first delivery expected next year.

The companies were selected from a field of 18 companies that presented their ideas and capabilities to a panel of GA-ASI technical experts during Blue Magic Belgium 2021. BMB21, held Sept. 15-16, 2021 at the headquarters of GA-ASI’s Belgian partner DronePort in Sint-Truiden, provided an opportunity for Belgium-based businesses to present their capabilities and products to GA-ASI with the goal of expanding GA-ASI’s business-to-business cooperation with Belgian industry.

“ALX Systems develops unmanned aircraft solutions, including a cloud-enabled operating system that enables UAS to fly autonomously,” said GA-ASI Vice President of Engineering Dee Wilson, who led the GA-ASI panel.

Coexpair specializes in out-of-autoclave Resin Transfer Molding (RTM) processing of composite parts. They offer material selection and prototyping services to develop this process for customer-specific needs. Coexpair will work with GA-ASI to develop an innovative RTM process for core stiffened composite sandwich structures.

ALX Systems and Coexpair are part of a growing list of Belgium-based businesses working with GA-ASI. Other companies include AeroSimulators Group, AIRobot, Hexagon’s Geospatial division and ScioTeq, SABCA, Thales Belgium, ST Engineering and DronePort.