USAF successfully flies Angry Kitten jamming pod on MQ-9 UAV
General Atomics Aeronautical Systems (GA-ASI) has released details of the first flight of an Angry Kitten ALQ-167 EW countermeasure pod on a GA-ASI MQ-9A Reaper UAV.
The USAF conducted the flight on 27 April using a pod supplied by the Georgia Tech Research Institute. GA-ASI integrated the pod in less than nine months at no cost to the air force by using a Cooperative Research and Development Agreement.
The USAF plans to continue flying with Angry Kitten pods over the next 12 to 24 months to develop the best tactics, techniques and procedures to leverage EW capability on other DoD aircraft such as F-16s.
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Adding the pod to a Reaper UAV would be a substantial improvement in capability for a platform largely used for reconnaissance and attack. The platform is in use or planned for use with eight countries and while an older design, first entering service in 2006, future use is set to continue out as far as 2045.
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