Gorgon Stare
BIG SAFARI wide-area surveillance · podded, not MQ-9-only
CORE wide-area sensor
Developed through BIG SAFARI. Increment 2 is ARGUS-derived EO plus Exelis IR. Congress treated the podded/open architecture as integrable on more than one aircraft type. MQ-9 is the documented host; an Orion fit by 8 March 2014 is open. 2013 OSD figure: 2 fps, not 6.
Gorgon Stare is a BIG SAFARI wide-area motion-imagery system. Increment 1 team: Sierra Nevada, ITT Geospatial, Mercury Federal Systems, MIT Lincoln Laboratory, L3, Gichner, AdamWorks. Mercury supplied onboard real-time processing and storage so the aircraft did not have to downlink the entire raw WAMI dataset. Increment 2 added BAE ARGUS-derived EO and Exelis IR. Sierra Nevada announced 1 July 2014 that Increment 2 had already deployed to Afghanistan earlier in 2014 and achieved IOC. Col Brandon Baker (Air & Space Forces, 7 Apr 2014): the second iteration ‘has been tried operationally’ and would undergo a six-month evaluation — that does not pin 7–8 March. HASC Report 113-102 (7 June 2013) called Gorgon Stare the USAF’s only operational persistent day/night WAMI capability and the logical programme to recapitalise Blue Devil WAMI + NVDF SIGINT. The same report said the podded/open architecture permitted integration on multiple aircraft types and insertion of multiple collection sensors. Aviation Week in 2010 named Gorgon Stare as a potential MAGIC payload. Same office, same sensor class, designed to move between airframes: that is the documented family, not a stretch. Whether an Orion carried it by 8 March 2014 is still open. OSD Office of Net Assessment, September 2013, labels Gorgon Stare 2 fps versus 30 fps FMV; a later ~6 fps ‘Increment 2 match’ used on alleged video is not established.
Sources
- Sierra Nevada Increment 2 release, 1 Jul 2014
- UAS Vision, 4 Jul 2014 — Increment 2 operational clearance
- Aviation Week 2010 MAGIC/Gorgon Stare note
Related
MAGIC
Medium Altitude Global ISR and Communications
Aurora Orion RPA
Twin-diesel MALE UAS · China Lake first flight 24 Aug 2013
645 AESG / BIG SAFARI
USAF rapid acquisition — the office that binds this family
Blue Devil I / II
Operational Block 1 WAAS + SIGINT · Block 2 residuals to BIG SAFARI
What sensors were actually on Orion by March 2014?
Gorgon Stare documented at 2 fps, not 6 fps
OSD September 2013 comparison figure
HASC Report 113-102 — Gorgon Stare to recapitalise Blue Devil
House Armed Services Committee · 7 June 2013 · USD(I)/USAF report due 14 Feb 2014
Was Gorgon Stare Increment 2 operational on 8 March 2014?
Gorgon Stare, Blue Devil and MAGIC/Orion are one overlapping ISR family under BIG SAFARI
Gorgon Stare’s podded architecture was designed for more than MQ-9
MH370 Daily Research — working papers
18 September 2026
Angel Fire
Wide-area airborne surveillance · lineage into Blue Devil Block 1
A BIG SAFARI collection architecture around MH370
The family is documented. A specific 8 March operation is open.
Blue Devil, MAGIC, Orion, BIG SAFARI — 2014 window
Briefing collages, 18 September 2026
Michael Selig testimony — Diego Garcia, Gorgon Stare, cold plasma
Thinking About the U.S. Military’s Next-Generation UAS Force
OSD Office of Net Assessment · September 2013 · 112 pp. · HQ0034-09-D-3007-0013
USAF: Gorgon Stare Increment 2 ‘tried operationally’
Air & Space Forces · 7 April 2014 · Col Brandon Baker
Where is the 14 February 2014 USD(I)/USAF Gorgon Stare / Blue Devil strategy report?
Blue Devil I operational demonstration ends
31 December 2013 · four King Airs returning to Leidos
FY2013 NDAA Sec. 927 — integrated SIGINT / WAMI plan
Congressional Record 12 Dec 2012 · ISR Task Force plan due 1 Jan 2013
DARPA WAND
Wide Area Network Detection · coincident WAMI + RF