Avalon 2019: General Atomics firms up Team Reaper Australia

General Atomics Aeronautical Systems Inc. (GA-ASI) has firmed up the roles of the companies that will make up Team Reaper Australia in support of the Department of Defence’s (DoD’s) Project Air 7003 requirement, it announced at the 2019 Avalon Airshow on 26 February.

The GA-ASI Reaper unmanned aircraft at the Avalon Airshow 2017. The company launched its Team Reaper Australia partnership at the event to sell the platform to Australia, and has since added companies and defined roles. (IHS Markit/Gareth Jennings)

First announced at the same event two years ago, Team Reaper Australia at that time comprised GA-ASI, Cobham, CAE Australia, Raytheon Australia, and Flight Data Systems. When GA-ASI was selected by the DoD in November 2018, these companies were joined by Collins Aerospace, Quickstep Technologies, Sentient Vision Systems, TAE Aerospace, and Ultra Electronics Australia.

GA-ASI and lead partner Cobham have been working in partnership for more than 12 years to prepare for the whole-of-life support requirements for Australia’s Project Air 7003 requirement for an armed medium-altitude long-endurance (MALE) unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV), drawing on the experiences learned with the United Kingdom’s Reaper programme, for which Cobham supports the ground control station (GCS) at RAF Waddington. For Team Reaper Australia, Cobham will provide maintenance, repair, and overhaul (MRO), and logistics support.

CAE will provide training solutions for the Reaper in Australia in line with those it already provides to the US Air Force, while Raytheon will leverage its integration experience for the sensor and weapons payloads and Flight Data Systems its aviation services and products, including environmental testing of line-replaceable units, flight data acquisition, monitoring, and analysis.