RAF’s Protector RG Mk1 is first large UAV to receive Military Type Certificate

The UK Military Aviation Authority has issued a Military Type Certificate (MTC) to the Royal Air Force’s (RAF’s) General Atomics Aeronautical Systems Inc (GA-ASI) MQ-9B unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), which are known as Protector RG Mk1s in RAF service, GA-ASI announced on 8 May 2025.

The MTC certifies that the Protector RG Mk1 has passed a rigorous airworthiness assessment and verifies that it is safe to operate without geographic restrictions, including over populated areas.

“This April 29 decision was a first-of-its-kind milestone for a large, unmanned aircraft system,” GA-ASI stated. “It’s a huge accomplishment for the UK and a technological watershed in the history of unmanned aircraft systems. GA-ASI is the first manufacturer of large, unmanned aircraft to receive an MTC based on rigorous compliance with STANAG 4671: the NATO standard for unmanned aircraft system airworthiness.”

Obtaining the MTC has been a goal of GA-ASI since the inception of the MQ-9B in January 2014. The company took its proven UAV platform, the MQ-9A, and added performance-enhancing features while ensuring that the design was capable of meeting NATO’s STANAG 4671 Edition 2 airworthiness requirements. To meet those rigorous requirements the aircraft incorporates numerous enhancements not found on other large UAVs, such as lightning protection, fire protection, anti-icing systems and a fatigue- and damage-tolerant building block design approach. All flight critical software and related equipment was designed in compliance with DO-178C and DO-254: two key standards used in the aerospace industry to ensure the safety and reliability of airborne systems, specifically focusing on software and electronic hardware respectively.

Mission software on the MQ-9B is rigidly separated from flight-critical software. These features not only address the aircraft’s airworthiness but also enhance its reliability and operational flexibility to levels unmatched by other UAVs, according to GA-ASI.

“Earning an MTC for MQ-9B was a Herculean effort and a seminal achievement for our company,” GA-ASI CEO Linden Blue was quoted as saying in a GA-ASI press release. “We invested over USD 500 million [EUR 444 million] as part of an 11-year effort to develop an unmanned aircraft that meets NATO’s rigorous airworthiness standards. This included three flight test aircraft, full component- and system-level environmental testing to DO-160G and applicable Mil-Standards, full-scale static test airframe test to ultimate ground and flight loads, bird strike, hail protection and full-scale fatigue testing to three lifetimes (3x 40,000 notional aircraft flight hours = 120,000 hours total). Our engineers developed over 140,000 pages of detailed technical data verifying that the MQ-9B met those demanding requirements. I congratulate our team for this outstanding accomplishment, and I know our customers need this type certification, which will open civil airspace for their flight operations.”

The RAF continues to take delivery of Protector fleet, which is based at RAF Waddington, and so far has 10 of the 16 UAVs it has ordered.

“Achieving the award of a first-in-class Military Type Certificate has required years of dedication and perseverance and is a testament to the hard work of all involved,” stated Group Captain Neil Venables, Type Airworthiness Authority and holder of the Protector Type Certificate. “It is a privilege to be the first to be awarded an MTC for the Protector air system.”

GA-ASI bills the MQ-9B, which includes the SkyGuardian and SeaGuardian models as well as the Protector operated by the RAF as the world’s most advanced medium-altitude, long-endurance UAV. In addition to the UK, GA-ASI has MQ-9B orders from Belgium, Canada, Poland, the Japan Coast Guard, the Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force, Taiwan, India and the US Air Force in support of US Special Operations Command.