The quest for drone supremacy continues as the usefulness for drones is expanding into the maritime domain. According to General Atomics Aeronautical, a defense firm specializing in drone technology development, they have successfully tested the MQ-9B SeaGuardian. This system is designed exclusively for submarine hunting from the air. General Atomics’ official website describes the SeaGuardian as possessing “anti-submarine sensors using multiple pre-production Sonobuoy Dispensing System (SDS) pods.” The website continues by saying that the MQ-9B SeaGuardian have “already proven its ability to track submerged targets, SeaGuardian took this capability further with [General Atomics’] news designed SDS pods.” In fact, “These pods deployed multiple sonobuoys to conduct onboard thermal-depth and acoustic data processing.” In its conclusion, the firm assessed that the “SeaGuardian effectively detected, tracked, and analyzed underwater targets while collecting critical acoustic intelligence.” Thus, a real automated sub-hunter—and killer—was born. And this couldn’t have come a moment too soon, as the Russian Federation’s submarine threat plagues NATO forces and China’s submarine threat increases daily.

Full report : General Atomics Aeronautical has successfully tested a new specialized submarine killer automated drone called MQ-9B SeaGuardian.