
3.3.2020
GA-ASI to Host Blue Magic Belgium Again in 2020
GA-ASI to Host Blue Magic Belgium Again in 2020 – link
Source: UAS Vision

Article Headlines
- GA‑ASI has announced that it will host Blue Magic Belgium (BMB) again this year
- Initiated in 2019, BMB is a GA-ASI industrial collaboration event held to identify Belgian technology companies interested in supporting the development of the MQ-9B SkyGuardian
- This year’s BMB event will be held on April 21-22, 2020 at DronePort’s facilities in Sint-Truiden, Belgium
- The Government of Belgium has approved Belgian Defense to negotiate for the acquisition of MQ-9B to meet the nation’s RPA requirements
- The BMB event strives to increase the number of small and medium size Belgian companies that can provide research and development (R&D) and innovation to support GA-ASI
- Companies wishing to meet with GA-ASI representatives during the April 21-22 event should visit theomxevents.com/BlueMagicBelgium for additional information and event registration
- As part of last year’s BMB, AeroSimulators Group (ASG), AIRobot, ALX Systems and Hexagon joined Team Sky Guardian, which already included these five Belgium companies: SABCA, Thales Belgium, ScioTeq, ST Engineering and DronePort.
Overview & Comments
- In March 2019 the US State Department gave the green light for Belgium to acquire the MQ-9B SkyGuardian for (then) a potential deal of approximately 600 million USD
- Belgium is the second customer of the variant after the launch customer being the UK Royal Air Force
- In late 2019 Australia became the third SkyGuardian customer for a potential deal of one billion USD – See “Cobham and GA-ASI Extend Partnership in Australia”
- Currently, GA-ASI is pushing its MQ-9 customers to transition to the newer, more advanced, SkyGuardian – See “Abrupt End to MQ-9 Production Surprises General Atomics”
- Last December the company conducted a series of demonstrations for various European countries, out of Greece, which focused primarily on maritime operations and detect & avoid capabilities – See “Additional efforts for General Atomics to penetrate deeper within the European Market”
- The company is planning regional demonstrations in the Asia-Pacific region where it sees potential for maritime UAS activity – See “General Atomics Plans Asia-Pacific Maritime Patrol Demos In 2020”
- Other potential markets the company is reaching out to are India & Japan