An artist’s rendering shows the Japan Coast Guard’s SeaGuardian drone. (General Atomics Aeronautical Systems)

Defense News reports that the Japanese Coast Guard has begun operational use of the MQ-9B Sea Guardian UAS.

The SeaGuardian features a multimode maritime surface-search radar with an inverse synthetic-aperture radar imaging mode, and an automatic identification system receiver. It is fully compliant with STANAG-4671, which is NATO’s airworthiness standard for unmanned aircraft, and it features a collision-avoidance radar to enable operations in civil airspace.