One of the sleeper stories from RIMPAC is that General Atomic’s MQ-9B SeaGuardian spent some 100 hours poking around the exercises and demonstrated Long Range Anti-Ship Missile (LRASM) targeting and a new Sonobuoy Dispensing System (SDS) to support its ASW capability.
SeaGuardian, which is basically a navalized MQ-9 Reaper (Predator B) with a longer wingspan (79 feet vs. 66), endurance (“40+ hours” vs 24), and heavier weight (12,000 pounds max T/O vs 10,500), has been under development by GA-ASI since 2017.
It is a bruiser, with SeaGuardian featuring nine hardpoints (8 wing, 1 centerline) with a maximum 4,750-pound external payload capacity. By comparison, the Douglas SBD Dauntless dive bomber had a max payload of 2,250 pounds. Reaper is already cleared to carry Hellfire missiles, Paveways, and JDAMs.
The SeaGuardian variants can carry a 360-degree patrol radar and two 10-tube sonobuoy pods, while still being able to clock in with Hellfires and 500-pound bombs if needed. If you told me they could find a way to mount an anti-ship missile and some Mk. 50 torps, perhaps on a paired aircraft operating in teams, I wouldn’t doubt it.
It has been demonstrating a sonobuoy delivery– and monitoring– capability, having dropped BT, DIFAR, and DICASS buoys in a 2021 test and then successfully tracked a target for three hours.
In its ASW tracking role, it can carry as many as 40 NATO A-size (4 7/8-inch diameter, 36-inch length) sonobuoys. Worse case, they can be buoy trucks for P-8s and MH-60s, especially if they can deploy on an LHA/LHD.
“For RIMPAC, the MQ-9B effectively passed ISR&T information to various surface and air units, such as the Nimitz-class carrier USS Carl Vinson, Guided Missile Destroyers (DDGs), Littoral Combat Ships (LCS), frigates, patrol boats, P-8s, P-3s, and numerous other U.S. and foreign units that took part in the exercise,” said GA-ASI President David R. Alexander.
Impressively, once the exercise was over, SeaGuardian self-deployed back to GA-ASI’s Desert Horizon Flight Operations Facility in El Mirage, California, a trip of no less than 2,893 miles. It has a published (ferry?) range of some 5,000+ nmi, so that is well within its envelope.
For reference, Guam (or better yet, Tinian Island) to Taiwan is just 1,700 miles.
Something not spoken about is that the A-size sonobuoy opens up the use of compatible autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs) such as Lockheed’s EMATT and SUBMATT which can mimic submarines and do other neat tricks.
Want to screen an SSN or SSGN operating in a tough non-permissive environment from enemy sub-busters? Imagine the confusion and diversion you can pull off with a few SeaGuardians filed with 20-30 SUBMATTs clearing the way to a vital target, especially if they could be made as glide aways.
Anyway, a few squadrons of weapons-certified SeaGuardians (Quicksink, anyone?) could be very interesting in future Pacific (or Persian Gulf) hot spots, especially in out-of-the-box asymmetric scenarios.
SeaGuardian