Story ID: 
MoD Recognizes General Atomics for Reaper
By: AIN Staff
Caption: General Atomics Aeronautical Systems (GA-ASI) won an 

award this week from the UK Ministry of Defence (MoD) for the deployment of the MQ-9 Reaper surv
Word Count: 149
General Atomics Aeronautical Systems (GA-ASI) won an award this week from the UK Ministry of Defence (MoD) for the deployment of the MQ-9 Reaper surveillance UAV in Afghanistan last year. “Reaper met a complex urgent operational requirement on track against demanding approvals through excellent team work,” said General Sir Kevin O’Donoghue, chief of Defence Material. At the last Farnborough show in 2006, AIN broke the news that the requirement was being drafted. Since then, GA-ASI has worked closely with the MoD to deploy three Reapers to provide up to 24/7 coverage with full-motion video and synthetic aperture radar sensors. A precision attack capability has also been added and already used. The aircraft have now logged over 1,500 hours, although one of the three was written off after an engine failure. Earlier this week, GA-ASI signed an agreement with Cobham for the British company to support the Reaper system in UK service.