T-SOAR makes military MQ9 Reaper drones almost invisible
In order to conduct better military reconnaissance in enemy territory, reconnaissance drones must be as undetectable as possible.
An MQ9 Reaper drone in flight. There is a SOAR pod under the drone.
(Image: General Atomics (Screenshot))
General Atomics has developed the T-SOAR (Scalable Open Architecture Reconnaissance), an electronic warfare enhancement for MQ9 Reaper drones designed to make the drone virtually invisible. The T-SOAR, which is attached to the drone in a capsule, mimics the enemy's radar and communications emissions and sends them back to the source. The US Marine Corps already has the T-SOAR in use.
The T-SOAR pod can be suspended under an MQ9 Reaper drone. Conventional SOAR pods measure approximately 317.5 cm × 73.7 cm × 63.5 cm and weigh 287.6 kg. They can therefore only be mounted under larger drones. It can be assumed that the T-SOAR system has similar dimensions and weights. It is presumably a further development of the SOAR pods developed by General Atomics and L3Harris, which were already tested in 2021 as the Reaper Defense Electronic Support System.
These SOAR systems are actually used to detect, identify and locate enemy radar and communication signals at great distances. This makes it possible to use MQ9 drones equipped with these systems to detect threats from a distance before enemy aircraft can threaten their own. The MQ9 drones transmit usable information to their own and friendly air forces.
"Black hole"
The T-SOAR builds on this system. However, it is also capable of reproducing the enemy's radar and communication emissions and sending them back to the original source. An MQ9 Reaper drone equipped with this becomes a "black hole" and is therefore difficult or impossible to detect. The drone can thus penetrate deeper into enemy territory without being detected with a high probability.
It is unclear exactly how the system works. The T-SOAR capsules are under strict secrecy.
It is also unclear how many of the US Marines' 20 MQ9A drones are equipped with a T-SOAR. The only thing that is certain is that the MQ9 Reaper platform is now being converted from a fighter platform to a reconnaissance platform. The US Marines want to use these drones with an extended range to be able to use them unseen for communication and data transmission tasks and also for electronic warfare and reconnaissance missions in the Indo-Pacific against China.
(olb)