Swedish Saab, together with the American General Atomics Aeronautical Systems Inc. (GA-ASI), in an extremely short time began flight tests of the MQ-9B UAV with LoyalEye radar sensor for detecting and tracking air targets. Due to this, the MQ-9B is turning into an unmanned Airborne Early Warning (AEW) solution.
About the first flight of the MQ-9B from GA-ASI with Saab's LoyalEye, which was carried out on May 19 this year at the Desert Horizon test site in California, was simultaneously announced by both companies on Thursday, May 21 of this year. Thus, from the announcement of the development in June 2025, to the first flight, less than a year has passed, which is an extremely short period for this kind of task.
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As the developers stated, the tests are also planned to be carried out in a very short time – they will last several months and will end with a demonstration of the full readiness of the unmanned AEW system later this year.
At the moment, any details regarding the characteristics of LoyalEye radar sensor, the range of target detection, as well as the flight time of the MQ-9B UAV with LoyalEye containers are not reported. We can only assume that the weight of the system is unlikely to exceed 2.1 tons, which is the maximum permissible load for the MQ-9B.
Saab limited itself to a general phrase: "LoyalEye on the MQ-9B offers critical airborne sensing, supporting extended persistence and operational reach. As a complement to manned assets, it aims to enhance situational awareness and, in combination, enable greater operational reach and flexibility"
Defense Express notes that such a solution is very interesting for Ukraine, because it is AEW aerial vehicles that can provide effective detection of low-altitude targets. If any ground-based radar has natural limitations in the range of target detection through the radio horizon, which, depending on the terrain, can be 40-50 km, then by raising the radar to a height of 7 km, this radio horizon can be expanded to 350-380 km.
It should also be noted that the advantage of the MQ-9B UAV with LoyalEye radar sensor may be less dependence on the human factor. In particular, if the operation of a manned AEW aircraft is limited by the physical condition of the personnel, then the MQ-9B is declared to be able to barrage for more than 24 hours, during which several shifts of operators can work on the ground. Another important factor may be the absence of risk to personnel in the case of using this AEW system.
At the same time, it should be understood that it is unlikely that the LoyalEye radar sensor has the same characteristics in terms of power and viewing range as solutions for aircraft, for example, for the Erieye ER radar installed on Saab's GlobalEye aircraft. Although, given the rather tight development time of the new unmanned Airborne Early Warning system, it is not excluded that the solution for the MQ-9B may be based on this radar...
Defense Express reported earlier that first combat duty of Saab 340 AEW&C in Poland showed how long it takes to deploy this system.
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