The General Atomics Mojave is an

unmanned aerial vehicle An unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) or unmanned aircraft system (UAS), commonly known as a drone, is an aircraft with no human pilot, crew, or passengers onboard, but rather is controlled remotely or is autonomous.De Gruyter Handbook of Dron ...

(UAV) capable of short takeoff and landing (STOL), being developed by

General Atomics Aeronautical Systems General Atomics Aeronautical Systems, Inc. (GA-ASI) is a military contractor and subsidiary of General Atomics that designs and manufactures unmanned aerial vehicles and radar systems for the U.S. military and commercial applications worldwide ...

. First unveiled on December 9, 2021, General Atomics states that it is to fulfill the roles of

reconnaissance In military operations, military reconnaissance () or scouting is the exploration of an area by military forces to obtain information about enemy forces, the terrain, and civil activities in the area of operations. In military jargon, reconnai ...

close air support Close air support (CAS) is defined as aerial warfare actions—often air-to-ground actions such as strafes or airstrikes—by military aircraft against hostile targets in close proximity to friendly forces. A form of fire support, CAS requires ...

, and armed overwatch.

Design and development

Development on the Mojave began around 2018 or 2019. The initial objective was to create a drone that could perform

vertical takeoff and landing A vertical take-off and landing (VTOL) aircraft is one that can take off and land vertically without relying on a runway. This classification can include a variety of types of aircraft including helicopters as well as thrust-vectoring fixed-wing ...

(VTOL), but this was determined to be impractical as significant compromises in payload or endurance would need to be taken. Instead, development shifted to a STOL design that would preserve performance while needing less runway space. It features a configuration similar to that of the

MQ-9 Reaper The General Atomics MQ-9 Reaper (sometimes called Predator B) is an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV, one component of an unmanned aircraft system (UAS)) capable of remotely controlled or autonomous flight operations, developed by General Atomi ...

, with a low-mounted wing, bulbous nose, and Y-tail. The engine, a Rolls-Royce M250 turboprop, is mounted in a pusher configuration. Two main things that set this aircraft apart from the rest of the

Predator Predation is a biological interaction in which one organism, the predator, kills and eats another organism, its prey. It is one of a family of common List of feeding behaviours, feeding behaviours that includes parasitism and micropredation ...

family are its wings and landing gear. The wings are enlarged, featuring "high-lift devices" including leading edge slats, double-slotted flaps and drooping

aileron An aileron (French for "little wing" or "fin") is a hinged flight control surface usually forming part of the trailing edge of each wing of a fixed-wing aircraft. Ailerons are used in pairs to control the aircraft in roll (or movement aroun ...

s. The landing gear is also more reinforced when compared to other UAVs, featuring wide bushwheel-style tires, used to assist on landing in rough terrain, and thick shock absorbers as well as more pronounced torque links. A key design feature of the Mojave is its transportability; it can be broken down and transported via a

C-130 Hercules The Lockheed C-130 Hercules is an American four-engine turboprop military transport aircraft designed and built by Lockheed Corporation, Lockheed (now Lockheed Martin). Capable of using unprepared runways for takeoffs and landings, the C-130 w ...

or similarly-sized aircraft. It can then be ready for a mission in around 1.5 hours with a four-person team.General Atomics Unveils Latest Predator Family Member
''Aviation International News''. 13 December 2021. The Mojave completed its first test flight in summer of 2021, and was formally unveiled by GA on December 9, 2021. It is being developed to fulfill the role of an

unmanned combat aerial vehicle An unmanned combat aerial vehicle (UCAV), also known as a combat drone, fighter drone or battlefield UAV, is an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) that is used for intelligence, surveillance, target acquisition, and reconnaissance and carries aircra ...

that can operate from more rugged terrain with a combat loadout, while also offering the option to be outfitted with various electronic systems to assist ground troops. Some of these roles include

signal intelligence Signals intelligence (SIGINT) is the act and field of intelligence-gathering by interception of ''signals'', whether communications between people (communications intelligence—abbreviated to COMINT) or from electronic signals not directly u ...

(SIGINT) and

moving target indication Moving target indication (MTI) is a mode of operation of a radar to discriminate a target against the clutter. It describes a variety of techniques used for finding moving objects, like an aircraft, and filter out unmoving ones, like hills or tree ...

, as well as use of synthetic-aperture radar and

electro-optical sensor Electro-optical sensors are electronic detectors that convert light, or a change in light, into an electronic signal. These sensors are able to detect electromagnetic radiation from the infrared down to the ultraviolet wavelengths. They are used i ...

s. It can take off from austere runways as little as 152 m (500 ft) in length. In a surveillance mode it can take off from a runway and stay aloft for over 20 hours, and it can perform armed ISR taking off from a 488 m (1,600 ft) runway carrying 12 Hellfire missiles with nine hours maximum endurance. The longest the Mojave can fly is for 27 hours when taking off from a long runway with a full fuel load and no other payload, or it carry a full payload totaling 16 Hellfire missiles. In addition to guided munitions, M134D-H miniguns can be mounted on the wings to perform

strafing Strafing is the military practice of attacking ground targets from low-flying aircraft using aircraft-mounted automatic weapons. Less commonly, the term is used by extension to describe high-speed firing runs by any land or naval craft such a ...

runs. The STOL capabilities of the Mojave have further lead to the proposition of it being used as a carrier aircraft for naval operations. The Mojave is planned to be controlled using General Atomics' Scalable Command and Control (SC2) System, which is currently being developed for use on the MQ-1C Gray Eagle Extended Range (GE-ER), and likely will be able to operate from already-established General Atomics ground stations, such as the Certifiable Ground Control Station (CGCS) or Block 30 Ground Control Station. Use of the SC2 System will allow the operator to perform pre-flight, taxiing, take-off, and landing operations on-site by a pilot.

MQ-9B STOL

Mojave is being used to demonstrate uncrewed STOL capabilities for the upcoming MQ-9B STOL, a wing-kit that allows the MQ-9B, which has a greater payload and endurance than the Mojave, to operate from austere runways and aircraft carriers.

Operational history

In May 2023, the United Kingdom announced it would be acquiring a Mojave system for seven months of trials aboard its s. In November 2023, during the WESTLANT 23 deployment to the United States, a single Mojave and its associated control station were embarked aboard . The demonstration occurred on the 15th November and was witnessed by representatives from the US, Spain, Italy, Australia, and Japan. The demonstration saw the aircraft execute a take-off from an improvised angle rather than the standard centreline of the carrier and did not utilize the carrier's ski-jump, it then completed a number of circuits and approaches before landing back on the deck un-arrested. Beyond being the first time Mojave has performed a trial from a carrier, this also marked the first time an uncrewed system of this weight class had operated from an aircraft carrier outside the United States. On 13 April 2024, General Atomics conducted live fire tests with DAP-6

minigun The M134 Minigun is an American 7.62×51mm NATO six-barrel rotary machine gun with a high rate of fire (2,000 to 6,000 rounds per minute). It features a Gatling-style rotating barrel assembly with an external power source, normally an elect ...

pods, destroying several ground targets, including a

pickup truck A pickup truck or pickup is a Truck_classification#Table_of_US_GVWR_classifications, light or medium duty truck that has an enclosed cabin (truck), cabin, and a back end made up of a cargo bed that is enclosed by three low walls with no roof (th ...

, and expending over 10,000 rounds of ammunition. GA-ASI partnered with Dillon Aero to fit DAP-6 minigun pods to the Mojave. This was the first time guns were used on a General Atomics UAS. On 12 November 2024, Gray Eagle STOL UAV, which is the name of the mass-produced version of the Mojave, performed a take-off test on ROKS ''Dokdo'', an amphibious assault ship of the

Republic of Korea Navy The Republic of Korea Navy (ROKN; ), also known as the ROK Navy is the naval warfare service branch of the Republic of Korea Armed Forces, South Korean armed forces, responsible for naval and Amphibious warfare, amphibious operations. The South ...

. The UAV took off from Dokdo, flew twice close to her port side to perform a "simulated landing procedure", but did not land on the ship.

Specifications

References

External links