PARIS AIR SHOW — General Atomics Aeronautical Systems dropped two new announcements on the first day of the Paris Air Show, unveiling a new air-launched effect known as Pele and announcing a partnership with Swedish defense giant Saab to add an Airborne Early Warning and Control (AEW&C) capability to the MQ-9B Reaper.
The Saab announcement involves taking a suite of the European firm’s AEW sensors and packaging them onto a pod aboard the Reaper. The goal is to have an MQ-9 flying with the package by 2026.
The two claim the sensor package — the details of which were not revealed in a press release — “will span a wide range of applications, including early detection and warning; long-range detection and tracking; simultaneous target tracking and flexible combat system integration, all over line-of-sight and SATCOM connectivity.”
The companies are positioning the move as a way to provide countries who can’t afford a full, dedicated early warning platforms — such as the E-2 Hawkeye or Saab’s GlobalEye, which presumably will share some sensors with the new system — with a cheaper solution, particularly at a time when missile defense is a growing concern across the globe.
“High and low-tech air threats both pose major challenges to global air forces,” GA-ASI President David Alexander said in the announcement, adding the system “will transform our customers’ operations against both sophisticated cruise missiles and simple but dangerous drone swarms. We’re also making AEW capability possible in areas it doesn’t exist today, such as from some navy warships at sea.”
“We are bringing our exceptional ability to detect and track challenging objects to customers looking to use MQ-9B to meet their specific needs,” Carl-Johan Bergholm, head of Saab’s business area Surveillance, said in a statement. “This unmanned medium-altitude AEW solution, leveraging core competencies of both companies, has excellent potential to complement our existing AEW&C portfolio and provide customers with yet another cutting-edge capability.”
Pele Getting Hot
The company also announced the launch of a new launched effect known as the Precision Exportable Launched Effect, or Pele.
Described as semi-autonomous, Pele is effectively an attritable, propellor-driven small UAS that can be launched from other airborne assets, such as the MQ-9, or from the ground.
The system has an 11-foot wingspan and 16-horsepower engine, per the company, and comes with internal mission payload storage and an onboard electro-optical infrared sensor that can provide full-motion video. The firm claims a maximum gross takeoff weight of 250 pounds, seven hours of endurance and a 500 nautical mile range.
It comes at a time when the US military, especially the US Army, is experimenting with air launched effects — a term signifying, at its core, launching a smaller system off of a larger one.
GA is also using the event to showcase its Collaborative Combat Aircraft offering, dubbed the YFQ-42A by the US Air Force, with a full-scale model at its booth. While the CCA program is for USAF use, many European nations are eyeing similar concepts for their future needs.
Updated 6/16/25 at 2:15 am EST with comment from Saab.
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Author: Aaron Mehta
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