The new generation of "Grey Eagle" drone will be equipped with a new heavy oil engine to achieve a 40h battery life

[According to the announcement of General Atomics website on March 24, 2021] General Atomics (GA-ASI) issued an announcement on March 24 that as of March 16, 2021, the cumulative flight time of the "Gray Eagle" series drone system equipped by the US Army has exceeded 1 million hours.

The "Grey Eagle" series of drones are a type developed by General Atomics for the US Army. It was originally called the Army IGNAT and its first flight in March 2004. Since then, the US Army has successively deployed more than 250 "Grey Eagle" drones, including the new "Grey Eagle" range-extended (GE-ER). Of the 1 million flight hours, more than 80% of the flights are used to support combat deployments, with a mission completion rate of more than 90%.

The GE-ER drone has a battery life of up to 40 hours, which has better mission loading capabilities, reliability and maintainability than the traditional MQ-1C "Grey Eagle" that was first put into use in 2009.

Under the U.S. Army's modernization plan, the capabilities of GE-ER drones will be further enhanced, integrating newer technologies to improve off-domain survivability, while expanding mission load capabilities, including "Air-Speed ​​Effect" system (ALE) and "Stand-in effect" long-range sensors, which can support multi-domain combat (MDO), and will be equipped with a new 200-horsepower enhanced heavy oil engine and two 7.5-kilowatt brushless generators.

Note: This article is reproduced from "Aviation Briefing"