WASHINGTON (Sputnik) — The General Atomics MQ-1C Gray Eagle is commonly described as a medium-altitude, long-endurance drone developed by GAAS for the US Army as an upgrade of its MQ-1 drone.
“Work will be performed in Poway, California, with an estimated completion date of Sept.[ember] 30, 2018,” the statement read on Tuesday.
According to publicly released information, the Gray Eagle has a top speed of 173 miles per hour (278 kmh) and a cruising speed of 155 mph (250 kmh) with a range of 249 miles (400 kilometers).
The Gray Eagle has been developed as the US Army’s own UAV independent of the Air Force’s commonly-used and more well-known Predator drone.
However, the Gray Eagle has been plagued by development problems.
“Beginning in March 2011, ‘poor reliability across all major subsystems’ led to delays that would seemingly never end, according to a report from Edward Greer, the Deputy assistant secretary of defense for developmental test and evaluation,” Wired.com reported on June 15, 2915.
The US Army has contracted to buy 164 Gray Eagles by 2022, according to the report.
