The US wants to turn the MQ-1C Grey Eagle strike UAV into an AWACS against drones
The MQ-1C Grey Eagle as an airborne radar is a rather interesting solution, especially considering that this drone was supposed to be transferred to Ukraine a year ago
The American company General Atomics offers a rather interesting and potentially effective solution against drones that have actively changed the battlefield. At the very least, it would solve one of the problems associated with countering UAVs, which is that they are difficult to detect.
For this purpose, it is proposed to use MQ-1C Grey Eagle attack drones with Eagle Eye synthetic aperture radar. This radar has proven to be capable of detecting air targets at a range of 80 km and surface targets at a range of 200 km. And this is in a more than moderate size and weight of 62 kg, which allows it to be installed in the nose of the drone while maintaining the standard optical sighting station.
At the same time, according to Defense News, General Atomics has already tested its radar against UAVs. And Eagle Eye demonstrated the ability to track a small drone from a cork tree, but without announcing the range.
However, Grey Eagle’s developers see its role in the fight against drones solely as a means of detecting them, i.e. a kind of unmanned AWACS against other drones. Although it is technically possible to engage air targets, which is why an attack UAV could use the AIM-92 Stinger, the developers believe that this would be wrong from a conceptual point of view.
Thus, according to Mike Shortsleeve, Vice President of General Atomics, the main task of Grey Eagle will be to detect and transmit target data to cheaper weapons, such as artillery anti-aircraft systems, lasers, etc.
On the other hand, the U.S. Army now has obvious problems with ground-based component air defense that can be effectively used against drones. For example, only 144 M-SHORAD short-range systems (designed for 4 battalions) and 45 M-LIDS systems have been ordered for the entire US Army, and the number of Avenger SAMs is only enough for two battalions in the Army and seven in the National Guard.
At the same time, rejecting the role of Grey Eagle as an interceptor is also understandable. The maximum speed of this strike UAV is up to 309 km/h with a cruising speed of 250 km/h. And it will be difficult to “chase” aircraft with such parameters.
And it seems that the company that will offer a notional unmanned P-51 Mustang seems to be quite capable of hitting the jackpot. Because so far, nothing cheaper than large-caliber machine guns has been put into production to combat aircraft missiles, and no more mobile air defense system has been invented than a fighter jet.
It should also be noted that last fall, Grey Eagle was promoted as one of the options for strengthening Ukraine. However, the Pentagon believed that providing these weapons to the Ukrainian armed forces could “lead to an escalation of the conflict and signal to Moscow that the United States is providing weapons that can target positions in the territory of the Russian Federation.”
At the same time, the use of Grey Eagle in Ukraine as a repeat AWACS in the rear cannot in any way lead to any escalation, and it also eliminates any other risks that were also promoted in Washington at the time, such as Russia getting wreckage that would allow them to copy something. And during this time, the United States has already lost a similar MQ-9 Reaper near the occupied Crimea after it was rammed by a Russian plane, and any escalation may be out of the question for a long time.
