A contract was awarded to General Atomics Aeronautical Systems in January 1994 to execute the Tier II, Medium Altitude Endurance Predator Program. The Predator system first flew in 1994 and entered production in August 1997. Predators are currently in production for the US Air Force and are operational with the USAF 11th and 15th Reconnaissance Squadrons. In March 1998, General Atomics Aeronautical Systems was awarded a contract by the U.S. government for an additional 18 Predator aircraft, and in July 1999 a further 7, bringing the total to 60. The Italian Air Force are to acquire six Predator UAV’s from General Atomics, with Italian company Meteor as subcontractor responsible for assembly of five of the six.

Predator UAV's have been operational in Bosnia since 1995, where they have flown over 600 missions in support of NATO, UN and US operations. General Atomics is the prime contractor and the main subcontractors include: Versatron/Wescam for the electro-optical Skyball Gimbal; Northrop Grumman for the synthetic aperture radar; L3 Communication for the wideband satellite communications link; and Boeing for the intelligence workstation and mission planning system.

In May 1998 General Atomics was awarded a Block 1 Upgrade contract to expand the capabilities of the Predator system. System upgrades include development of an improved relief-on-station (ROS) system which allows continuous coverage over areas of interest without any loss of time on station, secure air traffic control voice relay, Ku-band satellite tuning and implementation of an Air Force Mission Support System (AFMSS).

A typical Predator system configuration would include four aircraft, one ground control system and one Trojan Spirit II data distribution terminal. The Predator air vehicle is 27 ft in length and has a 49 ft wingspan. The system operates at an altitude of 25,000 ft and at a range of 400 nautical miles. The endurance of the air vehicle is more than 40 hours and the cruise speed is over 70 knots. The air vehicle is equipped with UHF and VHF radio relay links, a C-band line-of-sight data link which has a range of 150 nautical miles and UHF and Ku-band satellite data links.

The surveillance and reconnaissance payload capacity is 450 lbs and the vehicle carries electro-optical and infrared cameras and a synthetic aperture radar. The 2 colour DLTV television is equipped with a variable zoom and 955 mm Spotter. The high resolution FLIR has 6 fields of view, 19 to 560 mm.

The Northrop Grumman TESAR synthetic aperture radar which provides all-weather surveillance capability, has a resolution of 1 foot. Other payload options, which can be selected to meet mission requirements, include a laser designator and rangefinder, electronic support and countermeasures and a moving target indicator (MTI).

The UAV Ground Control Station is built into a single 30 ft trailer, containing pilot and payload operator consoles, three Boeing Data Exploitation and Mission Planning Consoles and two synthetic aperture radar workstations together with satellite and LOS (line of sight) ground data terminals. The Ground Control Station can send imagery data via a landline to the operational users or to the Trojan Spirit data distribution system. The Trojan Spirit II data distribution system is equipped with a 5.5 m dish for Ku-band Ground Data Terminal and a 2.4 m dish for data dissemination.

Predator follows a conventional launch sequence from a semi-prepared surface under direct line-of-sight control. The take-off and landing length is typically 2,000 feet. The mission can be controlled through line-of-site data links or through Ku-band satellite links to produce continuous video. Video signals received in the Ground Control Station are passed to the Trojan Spirit van for worldwide intelligence distribution or directly to operational users via a commercial global broadcast system. Command users are able to task the payload operator in real-time for images or video on demand.