Japan Coast Guard expands SeaGuardian drone fleet to enhance maritime safety and SAR capabilities
The Japanese Coast Guard (JCG) signed the contract for the purchase of two SeaGuardian remotely piloted aircrafts (RPA) from General Atomics Aeronautical Systems, Inc. (GA-ASI), scheduled for delivery in 2025. This follows JCG’s existing SeaGuardian operating agreement with GA-ASI, which began in April 2022.
“Since JCG started operating SeaGuardians, they have been used for various JCG missions including supporting search and rescue and disaster response specifically during the 7.6 magnitude earthquake early this year near the Noto Peninsula of Ishikawa Prefecture and maritime surveillance during the 2023 G-7 Summit in Hiroshima, and the system has performed efficiently and effectively,” said GA-ASI CEO Linden Blue.
SeaGuardian is a medium-altitude, long-endurance RPA system that can fly for 24 hours or more, depending on configuration. Whether in its SkyGuardian or SeaGuardian version, it is an RPA in high demand in the global market today.
See also: US approved purchase of 31 MQ-9B Sky Guardian unmanned aircraft from India
GA-ASI has strengthened its Maritime Wide Area Surveillance (MWAS) for Japan with Optix+, which gathers information from the SeaGuardian sensors, as well as other data sources, displaying the full picture of surveillance information for its operator. This functionality makes it easy to task and direct its Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance (ISR) information in real time. GA-ASI’s Optix+ software suite rapidly correlates and exploits collected data into an easily shared common operational picture. Having multi-source correlated data enables automatic detection of anomalous behaviors over waters.
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