Kratos announces Grey Eagle UAV contract

9th May 2012 - 13:23 GMT | by The Shephard News Team

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Kratos Defense & Security Solutions has announced that it is one of two companies selected by General Atomics Aeronautical Systems (GA-ASI) for a Phase 1 development of the MQ-1C Gray Eagle Unmanned Aircraft System (UAS) Composite Maintenance System Trainer (CMST) programme. Kratos revealed the news 9 May, 2012.

As part of Phase 1, Kratos will develop the architecture and preliminary design for the suite of maintenance training systems and common support items for the MQ-1C Gray Eagle CMST. Kratos said the contract will draw on its experience in producing advanced maintenance training systems for a variety of military aviation platforms, which have included the UH-60M Black Hawk and CH-47F Chinook helicopters.

The GA-ASI MQ-1C Gray Eagle is a Medium Altitude Endurance UAS currently in the final stages of System Design and Development (SDD) for the US Army and is currently deployed in Afghanistan. The aircraft is an Extended Range/Multi-Purpose (ER/MP) derivative of GA-ASI’s successful Predator family of UAVs. This platform is used for Intelligence, Surveillance, Reconnaissance (ISR) and attacking enemy positions without detection. It is capable of operating for 24 hours at altitudes up to 29,000 feet with an operating range of 1,200 kilometres while carrying a payload of 800 pounds.

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