U.S. Navy Drone to get first-of-its-kind Anti-Submarine Warfare Capability Our Bureau 8274 MQ-9A UAS The U.S. Navy is working with General Atomics Aeronautical Systems, Inc. (GA-ASI) to develop first-of-its-kind Anti-Submarine Warfare (ASW) capability for its new MQ-9B SeaGuardian UAS. GA-ASI said today that during recent tests, the Navy’s MQ-9 drone successfully tracked a small submersible target for 3 hours using 10 sonobuoys dropped from it. On November 24, GA-ASI successfully demonstrated an ‘A’ size sonobuoy carriage, release, process and control from a company-owned MQ-9A Block 5 on a U.S. Navy Pacific test range. Using a SATCOM link, GA-ASI remotely processed bathythermal and acoustic data from deployed ‘A’ size Directional Frequency Analysis and Recording (DIFAR-AN/SSQ-53G), Directional Command Activated Sonobuoy System (DICASS-AN/SSQ-62F) and Bathythermograph (BT-AN/SSQ-36B) sonobuoys and accurately generated a target track in real time from the Laguna Flight Operations Facility located at Yuma Proving Grounds.