SeaGuardian Aerial Drone Gets New ASW Role

The SeaGuardian autonomous UAV can now deploy sonobuoys for anti-submarine warfare (ASW) missions, its manufacturer General Atomics has announced.

As per a recent company press statement, the MQ-9B SeaGuardian uncrewed aerial vehicle (UAV) produced by General Atomics Aeronautical Systems, Inc. (GA-ASI) can now be fitted with Sonobuoy Dispensing System (SDS) pods.

These pods deploy multiple sonobuoys to conduct onboard thermal-depth and acoustic data processing. The drone is capable of carrying up to 40 ‘A’ size or 80 ‘G’ size sonobuoys.

In trials conducted at the end of January 2025, an MQ-9B successfully air-dropped the sensors and then detected, tracked, and analyzed underwater targets while collecting critical acoustic intelligence.

GA-ASI President David R. Alexander commented: “This demonstration represents a major leap forward in unmanned capabilities and marks a major milestone in proving that an unmanned aircraft can perform end-to-end persistent ASW operations.” 

He added: “The success of this testing paves the way for enhanced anti-submarine warfare capabilities on the MQ-9B SeaGuardian. We look forward to continued collaboration with the U.S. Navy as they explore innovative solutions for distributed maritime operations in the undersea domain.”

The company said the Naval Air Warfare Center Aircraft Division (NAWCAD) AIRWorks had played a key role in supporting and overseeing development of the new capability.

The MQ-9B SeaGuardian is the maritime-focused sister drone of the SkyGuardian remotely piloted aircraft system (RPAS). It can fly for up to 30 hours at a time either autonomously or remotely piloted and can perform a variety of missions, including intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) and over-the-horizon targeting.

• For more details you can visit the GA-ASI website