Now that General Atomics Aeronautical Systems has unveiled its jet-powered UAV, the California-based company’s next step will be to persuade the U.S. Air Force, or perhaps other customers, to buy it.

The company flew the Predator C Avenger on a series of flights over its Gray Butte Flight Operations Facility in California in April, and distributed photos showing its stealthy shape.

The Avenger is designed to improve upon the capabilities of the MQ-9 Reaper and MQ-1 Predator aircraft, said Thomas Cassidy, president of the company’s Air Systems Group.

At 41 feet long with a 66-foot wingspan, the Avenger is slightly larger than the Reaper. But the real difference is its propulsion: the jet-powered Avenger can fly 460 miles per hour, about twice as fast as the turboprop-equipped Reaper.

Cassidy said his company might discover during testing that the Avenger is even faster than 460 mph.

“One of the most important capabilities for a UAV is its ability to loiter, so you don’t care how fast it is then, but it does matter how fast it can get there and back,” he said.

Just like the Reaper, the Avenger will be able to carry Hellfire missiles and 500-pound bombs with GBU-38 Joint Direct Attack Munitions with GPS navigation and laser guidance kits. In all, the Avenger can carry 3,000 pounds of weapons and sensors.

This unmanned aircraft is the first outfitted with an internal bay to hold weapons or possibly sensors, which should reduce the Avenger’s radar signature. It can carry extra fuel tanks or a wide-area surveillance pod inside the bay. The aircraft also has softer, stealthier-looking curves.

“If you hang the weapons from the wings like the Reaper and Predator, then it produces the bumps and corners on the edges that radar bounce off of that reveal the shape and size of the aircraft,” said Philip Coyle, an analyst for the Center for Defense Information.

In a statement, Air Force officials commended General Atomics for building the Avenger, but the service has not said whether it will buy the aircraft.

“If the Air Force establishes new UAS requirements, we anticipate an open competition to select the best material solution,” said Air Force spokeswoman Capt. Stacy Orlowsky. The Air Force published preliminary information last year outlining a next-generation unmanned air system competition, but the service halted the process for unknown reasons.

This isn’t the first time General Atomics has taken the approach of building an aircraft without a firm customer. It developed the Reaper and Predator the same way — not waiting for contracts from any of the services.

Like the Predator and Reaper, the Avenger could create another unending appetite from the services, said Tom Ehrhard, a senior fellow at the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments.

General Atomics plans to have ready an all-reconnaissance version of the Avenger once the Air Force completes development of a wide-area surveillance pod, Cassidy said.

The service plans to install 10 wide-area surveillance sensors under the Reaper, starting in 2010. Called Gorgon Stare, the sensors will allow airmen to film a 4-kilometer radius from 12 different angles. But it’s still too early to tell if this would be the pod installed under the Avenger, officials said.

The Avenger is designed to fly 20 continuous hours, or 22 with extra fuel tanks — a few hours less than the Reaper’s 25-hour flight time. Its operational altitude would be 10,000 feet higher than the Reaper, with a ceiling of 60,000 feet.

Commanders have come to value unmanned aircrafts’ ability to loiter over targets. The Avenger’s 20- to 22-hour flying time combined with the ability to fly twice as fast as the Reaper will increase that loiter time, depending on how far the target is from the Avenger’s home base, Coyle said.

-- Michael Hoffman

AVENGER AT A GLANCE

Specifications of the Predator C Avenger unmanned aircraft:

• Length: 41 feet

• Wingspan: 66 feet

• Payload: 3,000 pounds

• Engine: Pratt & Whitney PW545B

• Speed: 460+ mph

• Endurance: 20 hours (22 hours with extra fuel tank)

• Max altitude: 60,000 feet

• Sensors: Synthetic aperture radar, electro-optical/infrared cameras, full-motion video, Gorgon Stare wide-area surveillance

• Weapons: Hellfire missile, GBU-38 Joint Direct Attack Munition

Source: General Atomics; C4ISR Journal research