{"id":27407,"date":"2018-11-16T15:00:12","date_gmt":"2018-11-16T15:00:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/defensenews\/uncategorized\/2018\/11\/16\/australia-makes-its-pick-for-drone-fleet\/"},"modified":"2026-08-07T22:11:46","modified_gmt":"2026-08-07T22:11:46","slug":"australia-makes-its-pick-for-drone-fleet","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/defensenews\/global\/asia-pacific\/2018\/11\/16\/australia-makes-its-pick-for-drone-fleet\/","title":{"rendered":"Australia makes its pick for drone fleet"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">MELBOURNE, Australia \u2013 Australian Defence Minister Christopher Pyne announced Friday that <a href=\"https:\/\/www.defensenews.com\/unmanned\/2018\/04\/17\/general-atomics-demonstrates-mq-25-drones-flight-deck-capability\/\" target=_blank>General Atomics Aeronautical Systems Inc. (GA-ASI) <\/a>has been selected as the winner of its competition to supply a medium altitude long endurance (MALE) remotely piloted aircraft (RPA) to the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.defensenews.com\/digital-show-dailies\/euronaval\/2018\/10\/02\/naval-group-talks-with-australia-still-underway-for-sub-buy\/\" target=_blank>Australian Defence Force<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Australia has yet to make a choice between the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.c4isrnet.com\/air\/2018\/08\/27\/pentagon-preparing-to-test-mq-9-reaper-for-missile-defense-missions\/\" target=\"_blank\">MQ-9 Reaper Block 5 variant currently in production for the U.S. Air Force<\/a>, or the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.defensenews.com\/digital-show-dailies\/riat\/2018\/07\/13\/gamechangeraerial-drone-arrives-in-uk-after-mammoth-24-hour-transatlantic-flight\/\" target=\"_blank\">MQ-9B Skyguardian <\/a>(formerly known as the Certifiable Predator B) under development for the United Kingdom.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Pyne said that 12-16 air vehicles will be acquired under the ADF\u2019s Project Air 7003 Phase 1 (Armed MALE UAS) which, in the 2016 Australian Defence White Paper, was priced at between one and two billion Australian dollars (U.S. $730 million to $1.45 billion).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The Australian government will now request pricing and availability data from the United States on Reaper variants to support future decision making on the acquisition. He said he was looking at the 2020-2021 period for initial deliveries and an entry into service in the 2022-2023 timeframe.<\/p>\n\n\n\t<aside class=\"smg-interstitial-link wp-block-smg-interstitial-link\">\n\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/defensenews\/digital-show-dailies\/farnborough\/2018\/07\/17\/netherlands-signs-deal-for-unarmed-mq-9-reaper-drones\/\" class=\"smg-interstitial-link__inner\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"smg-interstitial-link__media\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"300\" height=\"200\" src=\"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/4477536.jpg.jpg?w=300\" class=\"smg-interstitial-link__image wp-post-image\" alt=\"\" \/>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"smg-interstitial-link__content\">\n\t\t\t\t<span class=\"smg-interstitial-link__kicker\">Related<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t<h3 class=\"smg-interstitial-link__title\">Netherlands signs deal for unarmed MQ-9 Reaper drones<\/h3>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<p class=\"smg-interstitial-link__excerpt\">General Atomics scores a major win at the Farnborough Airshow.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/a>\n\t<\/aside>\n\t\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The single source acquisition methodology comes as a blow to Israel Aircraft Industries, who had hoped their Heron TP MALE UAS would be considered in an open competition for the Air 7003 contract.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cAn assessment was made between the various capabilities and the Reaper was the one we decided was best-suited to our needs,\u201d Pyne said. \u201cAnd rather than going through a full tender process when we already know that this is the one that we want, we are adopting the single-source supply that is allowed under the [Australian Defence Organisation] First Principles Review.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The aircraft will be operated by the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) but Minister Pyne said no decision had been made about where they will be based. The ground control segment will be at RAAF Base Edinburgh in South Australia, where the announcement was made this morning.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cThe government will take advice of course from the ADF about the best placing for the Reaper. Edinburgh is the most likely place because it\u2019s where we have significant investments already in this kind of intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance and it has become the centre of our ISR capabilities in many respects,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">GA-ASI launched &#8216;Team Reaper Australia,\u2019 a consortium of Australian industry partners, at the 2017 Australian International Airshow at Avalon, south of Melbourne in March 2017 and announced its intention to bid for Air 7003 at the show.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The industry grouping has since expanded to include Airspeed, Cobham, CAE Australia, Flight Data Systems, Quickstep Holdings, Raytheon Australia, Rockwell Collins, Sentient Vision, TAE Aerospace and Ultra Electronics Australia.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The 12-16 air vehicles are expected to cost between one and two billion Australian dollars (U.S. $730 million to $1.45 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By:"},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v26.0 (Yoast SEO v28.1) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Australia makes its pick for drone fleet - Defense News<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The 12-16 air vehicles are expected to cost between one and two billion Australian dollars (U.S. $730 million to $1.45 billion).\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"noindex, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Australia makes its pick for drone fleet\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The 12-16 air vehicles are expected to cost between one and two billion Australian dollars (U.S. $730 million to $1.45 billion).\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" 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