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General Atomics, UAE firm tie up to offer Predator XP

duhastmish

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General Atomics, UAE firm tie up to offer Predator XP


General Atomics has signed an agreement with the United Arab Emirates' International Golden Group (IGG) to potentially supply Predator unmanned air vehicles to the country.

US government restrictions mean that all sales of General Atomics UAVs such as the MQ-1 Predator and MQ-9 Reaper are restricted to NATO nations and other select allies. The company, however, offers an export version dubbed the Predator XP.

IGG works with foreign defence contractors as a supplier for the UAE's armed forces.Its "proven expertise in providing comprehensive defence equipment solutions to the UAE marketplace is a strong complement to [General Atomics'] leadership in intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance [ISR] technologies," says the US manufacturer.

General Atomics chief executive Neal Blue says the "establishment of a working relationship with IGG represents a strategic commitment by both companies to help the UAE strengthen its national security and protect critical infrastructure".
The Predator XP has ISR capabilities "comparable" with the original Predator and is licensed by Washington for sale to a broader customer base, including countries in the Middle East and North Africa.

The XP has the same physical dimensions, altitude, speed and endurance as the US Air Force's original RQ-1 Predator. The UAV is available with multiple exportable sensors, including electro-optical/infrared payloads and General Atomics' own Lynx multi-mode radar.


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this can be good chance for pakistan to go for mq-9
 
A decision too late IMHO, now there are many potential competitors in the market even Chinese have managed to get a decent hold in both UAV and UCAV capabilities, not to mention Israel, UK and European manufacturers. There wont be much for GA in the rest of the world except some Arab countries which are traditional customers of US equipment.
 
"General Atomics"... a cool/funny name for a company. Like something out of a 1950's cartoon! :)
 
Actually, it is something out of 1950's Sci-Fi. Issac Asimov, Arthur C. Clarke, Et. Al often featured companies called "General Atomics" and "General Robotics" in their books. It is a play off of "General Electric", which was the dominant technologically focused economic entity of the time. General Atomics was founded in 1955, and the name may very well have been influenced by the science fiction of the day, given an engineers' sense of humor.
 
Does anyone know how many drones were actually bought? It seems like they dont want anyone to know as it wasnt released...
 

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