General Atomics recently conducted the first flight of its new Gray Eagle 25M (GE-25M) drone. The US Army plans to introduce the Multi-Domain Operations (MDO)-capable platform and operate it into the 2050s – to this end, a contract worth a maximum of 360 million euros was signed for the Gray Eagle 25M Production Representative Test Aircraft.
The test flight focused on flight-critical operations and testing the improved flight computer. The computer offers five times the processing capacity and 80 times the data storage for better computing power. The drone’s new HFE 2.0 engine and power generation systems were also tested. Some components of the flying object, including the aforementioned engine, but also the gearbox and generator, were developed in collaboration with the Project Manager Endurance Uncrewed Aircraft Systems (PM EUAS). https://militaeraktuell.at/es-wird-kein-stein-auf-dem-anderen-bleiben/ The collaboration with PM EUAS resulted in an open system architecture that enables plug-and-play functions to adapt the system to changing threats in the future. The Gray Eagle’s improved propulsion system is also intended to increase its resistance to electronic threats.
