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Artist rendering of MQ-9B STOL landing on a big-deck amphibious assault vessel. Photo: Courtesy of General Atomics Aeronautical.

Unmanned aerial systems have rewritten the rules of war, intelligence-gathering and so much more – and now they’re about to change yet again.

That isn’t the result of a new aircraft. It’s coming about as the result of ingenious innovation applied to an existing aircraft, the MQ-9B SeaGuardian, which is gaining the ability to do something no aircraft in its class has ever done before: short takeoff and landing, or STOL.

General Atomics Aeronautical Systems, Inc., which builds the MQ-9B and the world’s other leading medium altitude, long endurance UAS, is on track to design and develop an upgrade kit that allows the MQ-9B to operate from shorter fields — less than 1,000 ft — than the roughly 3,500-foot expeditionary runways it currently requires.

The addition of STOL evolves the MQ-9B into an even more versatile platform with no loss of its core onboard sensors such as its electro-optical infrared sensor, multi-mode radar and more. In other words, the new STOL kit preserves the most essential, unmatched, class-leading capabilities of this flagship UAS while also giving it whole new applications to operate in a crisis or conflict.

Another revolutionary aspect of the new system: Users won’t need to buy an entirely new aircraft and make compromises either on airfield performance or onboard systems. They can maximize the utility of their UAS and get both.

Simple upgrade

MQ-9B STOL performance will come from a simple wing and tail kit that changes out the stock features on the aircraft. Maintainers can make the swap in a normal hangar or on a flight line with standard ground support equipment. After a few hours’ work, MQ-9B STOL is ready to go.

What has changed in that brief transition: MQ-9B needs dramatically less ground roll to get airborne and land. That unlocks incredible new flexibility for American forces and their allies. The aircraft could take off from its home or forward-deployed airfield, conduct its missions, and then land at any number of newly available bases with very short runways.

After refueling and rearming, the UAS could continue moving to different airfields, confounding adversaries as to where it was headed at any given time. SATCOM-automated takeoff and landing mean the MQ-9B doesn’t need operators to be located wherever it’s coming or going, and missions can be flown via satellite, meaning its air crew can be anywhere. All the aircraft needs to work this way is a small ground team ready to replenish its fuel and whatever external stores needed for its mission.

Another value of the STOL kit is that if a SeaGuardian aircraft doesn’t need to operate this way — hopscotching around shorter fields, because it can fly regular missions into and out of a conventional airbase – it can reconfigure to its regular wings and tails and operate in a non-STOL configuration, maximizing mission endurance.

GA-ASI has decades worth of innovation and millions of operational combat hours behind all of its UAS, and most recently the introduction of a new, STOL-capable combat aircraft, Mojave has proven what’s possible. Mojave is slightly smaller, closer to an MQ-1C Gray Eagle – the flagship UAS of the United States Army – and MQ-9B STOL scales up the concept.

Ukraine’s heroic resistance to Russia’s invasion in early 2022 showed how valuable and versatile UAS remain on today’s battlefields. Increasing the number of locations and ways they can operate, including opening up shorter fields, only increases their benefit as force multipliers. And that doesn’t have to be limited to land operations.

Blue water operations

Another future goal for MQ-9B STOL is operations at sea. The aircraft’s modification kit could unlock the ability to operate from the Navy’s big amphibious assault ships or aircraft carriers.

MQ-9B STOL will fold its wings to park on a flight deck or in a ship’s hangar bay. When the time comes to launch, the aircraft unfolds its wings and takes off over the bow – no catapult needed. The ship recovers it over the stern, just like any other fixed-wing naval aircraft.

If STOL is a game-changer for land-based UAS operations, developing and delivering it to maritime forces for operations at sea will provide a quantum leap.

What’s essential in all applications is that short takeoff and landing means no sacrifices in the core sensing and other main capabilities of the aircraft – it remains the world-leading, full-up MQ-9B SeaGuardian with all the advantages and strengths that entails. Its sensing and networking remain world class, plus it can operate in all types of weather given its lightning safeguards and anti-ice systems, and integrate into civil airspace via its built-in detect-and-avoid system.

What MQ-9B STOL changes is the myriad ways and places a high-performance UAS can operate around the globe.