U.S. offers to sell new Predator XP drone to Gulf Arab states

http://www.geostrategy-direct.com/geostrategy-direct/secure/2013/03_20/3.asp

 

U.S. offers to sell new Predator XP drone to Gulf Arab states

ABU DHABI — The United States has launched marketing of its top unmanned aerial vehicle to Gulf Arab allies.

Industry sources said the administration of President Barack Obama has approved the marketing of Predator UAV, produced by General Atomics, to the six Gulf Cooperation Council states. They said the GCC, briefed at IDEX-2013 in the United Arab Emirates, was offered the newly-designed Predator XP, meant to be limited to reconnaissance.

"With significant interest from the UAE and other countries in Predator XP's long-endurance and wide-area surveillance capabilities, IDEX presents the ideal venue for the debut of our Predator XP full-scale model," Frank Pace, president of General Atomic's aircraft systems group, said.

This marked the debut of Predator, until now restricted to several NATO states, at IDEX, which ended on Feb. 21. The U.S. military and CIA have employed Predator in air strikes on Al Qaida operatives in such countries as Afghanistan, Pakistan and Yemen.

So far, the UAE, offered the XP in 2011, has been the only GCC state to sign an agreement for Predator. The UAE state-owned Tawazun Economic Council has also been negotiating with General Atomics to establish a Predator support infrastructure in Abu Dhabi.

XP has been deemed a variant of the RQ-1 Predator, which carries air-to-ground missiles. XP was said to contain the same measurements, speed, and endurance of RQ-1 but without the ability to carry missiles.

"Predator XP has been updated to include triple-redundant avionics, an automatic takeoff and landing system, GA-ASI's Lynx multi-mode radar with maritime wide area surveillance, high-definition electro-optic video, an improved Claw sensor control and image analysis software system, an automatic edentification system and a more efficient propulsion system," General Atomics said.