POWAY, California—General Atomics Aeronautical Systems (GA-ASI) is in the early stages of negotiating the potential sale of as many as 90 Predator C Avenger remotely piloted aircraft to an unidentified international customer.
The order, if ratified, would represent a massive turnaround for the program, which to date has failed to attract any notable sales since making its first flight in 2009. Only eight of the jet-powered Predator C models have been built, one of which remains a company testbed while another is operated by the U.S. Air Force. The rest are operated by unnamed U.S. agencies for classified missions.
But renewed international interest in the aircraft is believed to be led by India, which has requested access to the capability as a potential follow-on to the planned acquisition of as many as 22 GA-ASI MQ-9B Sea Guardian UAVs.
Although India initially sought the purchase of the Sea Guardian in mid-2016, the proposed acquisition has taken on renewed emphasis as part of recent intergovernment talks between U.S. President Donald Trump and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
The talks, which also reportedly involved General Atomics U.S. and International Strategic Development Chief Executive Vivek Lall and U.S. Vice President Mike Pence, are believed to have been centered on the Indian Navy’s Sea Guardian, but were expanded to include the Indian Air Force’s additional focus on the Predator C. The uptick in interest in the large UAV follows General Atomics’ recent development of an extended range (ER) version with a larger wingspan and greater payload capacity.
The Avenger ER made its first flight in late October 2016 at the company’s Gray Butte flight operations facility in Palmdale, California. The wingspan was extended by 10 ft. to 76 ft. and fuel capacity boosted by 2,200 lb. to 10,100 lb., which increased endurance to around 20 hr. Internal payload, which was increased by a fuselage stretch program in 2012, is 3,000 lb. Powered by a single Pratt & Whitney Canada PW545B, the aircraft can cruise at speeds up to 400 kt. and reach a maximum altitude of 50,000 ft.
GA-ASI says “the opportunity is still in the process of being developed and there is still quite a lot of work to be done to refine and shape the requirements.” But company President David Alexander confirms that if the deal materializes, “it would be a big program. At the end it’s a very affordable aircraft that [can operate at a] very high altitude with a very large sensor bay.”
Hinting at the standoff surveillance role that the Avenger C could perform, Alexander says the large payload bay can accommodate systems such as the United Technologies MS-177 multi-spectral imaging sensor. “You can carry it up there and see long distances. If you wanted to fly this aircraft along the border and look into somebody else’s country, or something like that, then that would require a sensor so big you couldn’t really put it in an MQ-9.”