Taiwan News website on August 7, 2020 reported that the Taiwan Government is negotiating the purchase of four American MQ-9B SeaGuardian maritime drones manufactured by the company General Atomics Aeronautical Systems Inc. (GA-ASI).
American company General Atomics Aeronautical Systems has developed a maritime variant of its MQ-9B Predator B, the SeaGuardian. It features the main characteristics of MQ-9A and incorporates many enhancements, all designed to make it a truly multi-mission aircraft and not just a strike drone.
The SeaGuardian system will feature a multi-mode maritime surface search radar with Inverse Synthetic Aperture Radar (ISAR) imaging mode, an Automatic Identification System (AIS) receiver, and High-Definition – Full-Motion Video sensor equipped with optical and infrared cameras. This sensor suite enables real-time detection and identification of surface vessels over thousands of square nautical miles.