Correction: A previous version of this story misstated the timeline of General Atomics’ testing of the Eagle Eye radar. The proper time-frame is offered below.
WASHINGTON — A brand new multidomain surveillance radar from General Atomics Aeronautical Systems, dubbed Eagle Eye, goals to extend the U.S. Army’s ability to trace and shoot down even small drones.
Mike Shortsleeve, vice chairman of Defense Department strategic development on the firm, said in a Monday interview on the Association of the U.S. Army’s conference in Washington that Gray Eagle 25M drones at the moment are in production with Eagle Eye, an artificial aperture radar.
A fact sheet from General Atomics said Eagle Eye’s synthetic aperture radar can spot targets as much as 50 miles away at high resolution, or as much as 125 miles when conducting maritime surveillance.
Recent conflicts, akin to the Russian invasion of Ukraine and the days-old fighting between Israel and Hamas, show the growing importance of small drones in war, Shortsleeve said. Hamas partly used small, explosive-laden drones to take the Israeli military by surprise, Forbes reported.
The threat from drones is prone to increase, based on Shortsleeve, as technical advancements akin to artificial intelligence and machine learning increase their capabilities and because the costs of such systems come down.
That’s where General Atomics sees its Eagle Eye-equipped Gray Eagles — working hand-in-hand with other systems that would do the actual shooting down of enemy drones — benefiting the Army, Shortsleeve said.
For instance, he added, it will be prohibitively expensive for a Gray Eagle to trace and shoot down a small enemy drone with a multimillion-dollar missile. However the Gray Eagle can discover the goal, track it and hand that concentrate on off to a different counter-drone platform that would down an enemy UAV with a inexpensive weapon, akin to a cannon or directed-energy weapon.
In a May test, he said, the Eagle Eye was in a position to detect and track a small fixed-wing drone made out of balsa wood — much smaller than forces in the sector would likely encounter from an enemy. An earlier test in late 2022 used the radar to shoot down a drone, General Atomics said.
Shortsleeve said Eagle Eye would have the opportunity to identify targets within the air, at sea and on the bottom.
General Atomics expects to deliver the primary tranche of 12 Eagle Eye-equipped Gray Eagle 25Ms to the Army National Guard within the second half of 2026, Shortsleeve said. One other six to 12 will follow for the lively duty Army, he said. General Atomics plans to proceed producing Gray Eagles with the brand new radars until the service decides to stop buying them or desires to put a distinct radar on the brand new Gray Eagle drones, he added.
The 25M variant of the Gray Eagle also includes open-architecture aircraft and ground systems, a greater engine, advanced data links, and improved range, the corporate said.
General Atomics has been evolving the technology on the core of Eagle Eye for years, but work on this system dramatically accelerated within the last five years, Shortsleeve said.
And loitering munitions of the type which have gotten considerable use in Ukraine may be targeted by the Eagle Eye radar, he said.
Some foreign nations have expressed interest in Eagle Eye-equipped drones, Shortsleeve noted, but he declined to discover the countries.
It will be possible to adapt this radar to other platforms besides the Gray Eagle, he said. But in years to return, he added, the Army is simply going to want more capabilities to counter small drones in combat.
“The proliferation [of small drones] in combat operations is growing exponentially,” Shortsleeve said. In the longer term, “it’s going to be undeniable that [unmanned aerial systems] are going to be everywhere in the battlespace, in any large-scale combat operations.”
Stephen Losey is the air warfare reporter for Defense News. He previously covered leadership and personnel issues at Air Force Times, and the Pentagon, special operations and air warfare at Military.com. He has traveled to the Middle East to cover U.S. Air Force operations.