GA-ASI Predator series reaches six million flight hour milestone

General Atomics Aeronautical Systems (GA-ASI) announced on 4 November that its Predator-series of UAVs, which includes the Predator, Predator B, Gray Eagle, Avenger and MQ-9B SkyGuardian, has surpassed six million flight hours.

The milestone was achieved on October 31, 2019 with GA-ASI aircraft having completed 430,495 total missions with close to 90 percent of those missions flown in combat.

‘Six million flight hours is a testament to the reliability of our unmanned aircraft systems that are designed, built, and sustained by a dedicated group of skilled and innovative professionals for operations around the world,’ said Linden Blue, CEO, GA-ASI. ‘In our more than 25 years in business, GA-ASI has achieved a list of historic ‘firsts’ in RPA development, and we have leveraged those accomplishments to better support our customer’s requirements.'

According to the company, the flight hours of the UAV family have continued to grow at unprecedented rates in recent years, with 500,000 flight hours achieved from 1993 to 2008, one million hours in 2010, two million hours in 2012, three million hours in 2014, four million hours in 2016 and five million in 2018.

‘The demand for persistent situational awareness using our RPA is demonstrated daily through the accumulation of flight hours. The demand for our aircraft is consistently answered by our team of employees, suppliers, and partners who work hard to meet our customers’ dynamic mission requirements,’ said David Alexander, president, GA-ASI. ‘Because of the dedication of our employees, our suppliers and partners, our aircraft have the highest mission capable rate in the USAF aircraft inventory.’