The MQ-9B SeaGuardian has changed the game in maritime domain awareness. It’s the first unmanned aerial system of its kind that can search the ocean surface and the depths in support of naval intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance. Pete Yelle, a former longtime U.S. naval aviator, now serves as strategic development manager at General Atomics Aeronautical Systems, Inc. Yelle talked about what makes the SeaGuardian so different from other aircraft available today and everything that has come before. Navies always have needed to know what’s on the sea, or under it. Why is there so much growing interest in this UAS now? Yelle: SeaGuardian does so many things at once, so well, in a way nothing has before. It can see, optically, with its electro-optical infrared sensor, as well as through haze or smoke with its synthetic aperture radar. It also can scan a wide area with the long-range maritime surface search radar. It has onboard systems that collect signals intelligence and comm
"Basically we have a five-and-a-half billion dollar budget provision, including about $3 billion spent to date, and potential costs within that envelope. So taxpayers will be up for five-and-a-half billion dollars and submarines that don't exist?" asked Sen. Penny Wong.