GA to build 34 Sky Warrior drones

Monday, May 24, 2010 at 11:51 a.m.

/ General Atomics

The Sky Warrior began flight tests in 2007.

General Atomics Aeronautical Systems of Poway is being given $195 million by the Defense Department to build 34 Sky Warriors, a variation of the Predator unmanned aerial vehicle that the U.S. Air Force has been widely using in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The new drones will go to the Army, which has "wanted its own version of the Predator because it felt it was getting an insufficient response to the combat needs of its soldiers from the Air Force," said Loren Thompson, a defense analyst at the Lexington Institute in Alexandria, VA."

" ...And there is no question that the Predator has been the technological star of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan

The Army already has 30 developmental Sky Warriors, and more are on order. But the $195 million represents the first formal production contract for the drone, which is capable of carrying four missiles as well as a suite of sensors for reconnaissance and surveillance. The figure also includes the cost of ground-control stations.

The Army is expected to use the aircraft in Afghanistan as well as Iraq.

"The Air Force is phasing out the Predator A, but it is expanding its use of the Predator B, and the Army is getting the Sky Warrior, which will continue the growth of our company," said Kimberly Kasitz, a spokeswoman for General Atomics.

General Atomics employs about 3,200 people in San Diego County. The initial work on the new contract will be done at its composite manufacturing facility in Sabre Springs, and the integration work will be performed in Poway.

"General Atomics doesn't have a very diverse product line, but the company has done an extremely good job of developing every potential of that line," said Loren Thompson, a defense analyst at the Lexington Institute in Alexandria, Virginia.