General Atomics Aeronautical Systems (GA-ASI) has demonstrated the capability of a new radar warning receiver (RWR) on its Predator B/MQ-9 Reaper Block 5 aircraft.
During the airborne demonstration at GA-ASI's facility in California, the Predator B was operated against various ground-based radars.
GA-ASI Mission Systems executive vice-president Claudio Pereida said: "The successful demonstration of a mature radar warning receiver on our company-owned Predator B clearly shows the utility of the aircraft in conducting missions in the proximity of threat radars and enemy air defences.
"We are pleased to be the first company to demonstrate this capability on a remotely piloted aircraft and hope to make it available to interested customers on a quick-reaction basis."
The Raytheon-built ALR-69A RWR was carried within GA-ASI's standard payload pod.
The RWR has been designed to provide enhanced situational awareness to aircrew and air element command and control units by identifying potential radar threats in or near 'contested airspace' environments.
Raytheon ALR-69A programme manager Paul Overstreet said: "The ALR-69A provides improved detection range and accurate, unambiguous identification in dense signal environments.
"Its open architecture is what allows it to operate on manned or unmanned aircraft."
In various flight profiles, the pod was able to validate RWR performance, which met or exceeded current thresholds for both air and ground radar threats, GA-ASI stated.
The RWR information to the flight crew was considered useful for triggering flight crew action, such as manually cross-cueing to other on-board sensors to validate threat information.
GA-ASI plans to conduct more RWR demonstrations later in the year to include integrating with Link 16, a military tactical data exchange network.
Development and testing of the RWR is being carried out under Internal Research and Development (IRAD) funding.
