GA-ASI selects two companies to support MQ-9B development as part of Blue Magic Belgium
General Atomics Aeronautical Systems, Inc. (GA-ASI) has selected two Belgian companies, ALX Systems and Coexpair, to support the development of the MQ-9B SkyGuardian Remotely Piloted Aircraft (RPA) and other advanced RPA-related projects.
The companies were selected from a field of 18 companies that presented their ideas and capabilities to a panel of GA-ASI technical experts during Blue Magic Belgium 2021.
BMB21, held Sept. 15-16, 2021 at the headquarters of GA-ASI’s Belgian partner DronePort in Sint-Truiden, provided an opportunity for Belgium-based businesses to present their capabilities and products to GA-ASI with the goal of expanding GA-ASI’s business-to-business cooperation with Belgian industry. The Belgian Ministry of Defense announced in 2020 that it will acquire the MQ-9B SkyGuardian with first delivery expected next year.
« We were impressed by the many talented companies that participated in Blue Magic Belgium, said GA-ASI vice president of Engineering Dee Wilson, who led the GA-ASI panel. We look forward to working with ALX Systems and Coexpair. Both companies bring unique products and capabilities that are important to our ongoing and future RPA development activities. »
ALX Systems develops unmanned aircraft solutions, including a cloud-enabled operating system that enables UAS to fly autonomously.
« ALX is happy to be selected again and looks forward to working with GA-ASI to develop a mission manager software application that will generate mission plans for autonomous operations » said ALX Systems’ Founder & CEO Geoffrey Mormal.
Coexpair specializes in out-of-autoclave Resin Transfer Molding (RTM) processing of composite parts. They offer material selection and prototyping services to develop this process for customer-specific needs. Coexpair will work with GA-ASI to develop an innovative RTM process for core stiffened composite sandwich structures.
« Our project with GA-ASI will tackle the challenge of resin intrusion into sandwich core during RTM processing » said André Bertin, CEO of Coexpair.