General Atomics wins contract to sell Belgium four MQ-9B SkyGuardians

By Sara Sirota / August 17, 2020 at 4:06 PM

The Air Force has awarded General Atomics a contract to sell Belgium four MQ-9B SkyGuardians -- the latest variant in the Predator drone series.

The company won a not-to-exceed $189 million undefinitized contract action and received $94 million at the time of the award, the Defense Department announced Aug. 14. The deal includes four MQ-9Bs, two ground control stations, spares and support equipment.

The State Department approved the sale to Belgium with an estimated cost of $600 million, per a DOD notice sent to Congress last year. That value had also accounted for five multi-spectral targeting systems, 15 embedded global positioning systems, five synthetic aperture radars and five detect-and-avoid systems.

According to General Atomics' website, the Royal Air Force also intends to buy the MQ-9B and the Australian Defense Force is considering it as well.

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