General Atomics Aeronautical Systems (GA-ASI) has been awarded a new contract by the US Army to add a C5ISR Modular Open Suite of Standards (CMOSS)-compliant open architecture Electronic Warfare (EW) capability onto the MQ-1C Gray Eagle Unmanned Aircraft System (UAS).
“Persistent, long-endurance, long-range UAS combined with EW means that the U.S. Army division commanders can apply the powerful EW effects of the Gray Eagle to neutralize threats to the maneuver force at a time and location of their choosing,” GA-ASI President, David Alexander, said.
This will be the third EW capability that has been integrated into the CMOSS chassis, showing how new plug-and-play capabilities can be integrated into the Gray Eagle platform. Other recent additions include Electronic Attack, Communications Relay, Counter-UAS, and Signals Intelligence.
Gray Eagle’s Modular Open Systems Architecture (MOSA) will allegedly streamline the integration of the new EW capability, which uses previous operational demonstrations and exercises applicable to Gray Eagle Extended Range and Gray Eagle Short Takeoff and Landing (STOL) variants.
GA-ASI will collaborate with AeroVironment (AV) to integrate the company's SharkCage Expeditionary C5ISR Chassis (ECCv3) onto the platform. Since 2024, GA-ASI and AV have jointly demonstrated a range of capabilities on the Gray Eagle open architecture chassis.
Earlier last month, in September 2025, GA-ASI and AV launched Switchblade 600 loitering munition (LM) from a GA-ASI Block 5 MQ-9A unmanned aircraft system (UAS).
“This cooperative effort showcased how combining different unmanned technologies could really provide value and effects to the warfighter,” Alexander stated at the time.
“By using MQ-9A to carry the Switchblade, the MQ-9A is able to stand off farther from enemy weapons systems and increase the range of the SB600, which will provide greater access and options in contested airspace.”
The flight testing took place from July 22-24 at the US Army Yuma Proving Grounds Test Range. It marked the first time a Switchblade 600 had ever been launched from an unmanned aircraft, according to GA-ASI.
“By using MQ-9A to carry the Switchblade, the MQ-9A is able to stand off farther from enemy weapons systems and increase the range of the SB600, which will provide greater access and options in contested airspace.”
The flight testing took place from July 22-24 at the US Army Yuma Proving Grounds Test Range. It marked the first time a Switchblade 600 had ever been launched from an unmanned aircraft, according to GA-ASI.