At the Farnborough International Airshow on July 22, General Atomics Aeronautical Systems, Inc. (GA-ASI), Thales Belgium, Octave Intelligence plc (which includes Luciad NV), and dotOcean signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to collaborate on integration- and manufacturing-related activity for the operation of multi-domain Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance (ISR) systems for the MQ-9B SkyGuardian® and SeaGuardian® Remotely Piloted Aircraft (RPA) manufactured by GA-ASI.
H.E. Theo Francken, Belgian Minister of Defence, commented, “This collaboration perfectly demonstrates why investing in Defence also means investing in our own economy and technological knowledge. Companies such as Thales Belgium, Octave and dotOcean bring their high-quality expertise on board one of the most advanced unmanned systems in the world. In this way, we not only strengthen our military capabilities, but also create opportunities for our companies, our engineers, and our talent. The MQ-9B SkyGuardian is therefore not only an important capability for Defence, but also a lever for innovation and a strong defence industry.”
“We’re excited to be working with these important aerospace businesses in Belgium,” said GA-ASI CEO Linden Blue. “We look forward to working with Thales, Octave, and dotOcean to help us develop software for our intelligence center that will be rooted in GA-ASI’s situational awareness capability. We expect the human-machine interface, external interface adaptors, and additional automated data exploitation to come from Belgian industry.”
For MQ-9B operators, GA-ASI delivers unified, end-to-end ISR operations and Processing, Exploitation, and Dissemination (PED) framework. GA-ASI will look to integrate Thales Belgium’s C4ISR software that connects stakeholders, enables real-time information sharing, and transforms data into a competitive advantage in decision-making through cutting-edge technologies such as AI, as well as Octave’s Alto portfolio (formerly Luciad) for high-performance geospatial visualization, and dotOcean’s data processing capability that transforms sensor data into actionable intelligence ready for AI and system automation, with an anticipated demo of the capability later this year. Other capabilities may be added as part of subsequent demos.
These new capabilities are expected to meet the needs of a growing list of international customers, particularly in Europe. Belgian Defence has joined the UK Royal Air Force as the first European countries to begin MQ-9B operations.
“Octave is proud to partner with GA-ASI, Thales, and dotOcean to advance innovation for Belgian Defence and beyond,” said Maximilian Weber, Octave vice president in Europe. “The integration of Octave Alto, relied on by defense agencies around the world, will bring advanced visualization and real-time situational analysis capabilities to support fast, coordinated decision-making.”
“dotOcean is looking forward to collaborating with GA-ASI, Thales and Octave to enable mission automation by generating actionable data from on-board sensors. We are eager to support maritime and multi domain missions for international defense clients,” said Koen Geirnaert, CEO of dotOcean.
