General Atomics Guardian

Maritime Patrol Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) [ 2006 ]

The United States Customs and Border Protection Agency operates several specially-modified MQ-9 Reapers as the Guardian.

Authored By: Staff Writer | Last Edited: 05/21/2019 | Content ©www.MilitaryFactory.com | The following text is exclusive to this site.

Image courtesy of the United States Department of Defense imagery database.

VIEW SPECIFICATIONS [+]

The General Atomics "Guardian" is a modified maritime patrol variant of the successful line of General Atomics MQ-9 "Reaper" Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) family and operated under the banner of the United States Customs and Border Protection (US CBP). The CBP operates at least two in this navalized role, outfitted with the SeaVue marine search radar system. Additionally, they sport a special over-water electro-optical infrared sensor for the role. The MQ-9 Reaper (formerly known as "Predator B") forms a long-endurance, high-altitude, armed patrol role for the United States Air Force (USAF) and is in service with the forces of Australia, Britain, Netherlands and Italy as well with over 100 units built.

These aircraft retain much of the same form and function of their Reaper counterparts including their straight mainplanes, Vee-shaped vertical tail fins and bulbous nose section. However, a special extension is noted along the belly, mounting a pod, and winglets are added to the mainplane tips. The aircraft is still powered by a conventional engine system (Honeywell turboprop) that drives a three-bladed propeller unit at the rear of the fuselage in a "pusher" configuration. The integrated, retractable wheeled undercarriage allows the aircraft to take-off and land from any prepared runway.

The Guardians are known to be based out of Cape Canaveral Air Force Station (Florida) and Naval Air Station Corpus Christi (Texas).©MilitaryFactory.com

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Specifications

Service Year

2006

Origin

United States

Status

ACTIVE
In Limited Service.

Crew

0
UNMANNED

Production

2
UNITS

General Atomics Aeronautical Systems - USA

(View other Aviaton-Related Manufacturers)

United States

(OPERATORS list includes past, present, and future operators when applicable)

✓ Intelligence-Surveillance-Reconnaissance (ISR), Scout
Surveil ground targets / target areas to assess environmental threat levels, enemy strength, or enemy movement.

✓ Unmanned Capability
Aircraft inherently designed (or later developed) with an unmanned capability to cover a variety of over-battlefield roles.

Length

36.1 ft
(11.00 m)

Width/Span

65.6 ft
(20.00 m)

Height

11.8 ft
(3.60 m)

Empty Wgt

4,905 lb
(2,225 kg)

MTOW

10,472 lb
(4,750 kg)

Wgt Diff

+5,567 lb
(+2,525 kg)

(Showcased structural values pertain to the base General Atomics Guardian production variant)

Installed: 1 x Honeywell TPE331-10 turboprop engine developing 900 horsepower.

Max Speed

298 mph
(480 kph | 259 kts)

Ceiling

49,869 ft
(15,200 m | 9 mi)

Range

1,150 mi
(1,850 km | 3,426 nm)

♦ MACH Regime (Sonic)

Sub

Trans

Super

Hyper

HiHyper

ReEntry

♦

(Showcased performance specifications pertain to the base General Atomics Guardian production variant. Performance specifications showcased above are subject to environmental factors as well as aircraft configuration. Estimates are made when Real Data not available. Compare this aircraft entry against any other in our database or View aircraft by powerplant type)

None. Special mission equipment centered around surveillance, intelligence-gathering and reconnaissance.

Supported Types

(Not all ordnance types may be represented in the showcase above)

Guardian - Base Series Name

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