First production Global Hawk rolls out

  • Published
  • By Sue Baker
  • Aeronautical Systems Center Public Affairs
WRIGHT-PATTERSON AIR FORCE BASE, Ohio (AFPN) --  The first production RQ-4A Global Hawk unmanned aerial vehicle rolled out in ceremonies held Aug. 1 at prime contractor Northrop Grumman’s Antelope Valley Manufacturing Center at Air Force Plant 42 in Palmdale, Calif.

Drawing back a large curtain, program officials unveiled Global Hawk in its operational gray and white colors as Air Force dignitaries and contractor employees cheered and applauded the milestone.

“The fact that we have hardware now rolling out of the factory a little over two years after the start of the formal acquisition program shows that we are realizing the vision of evolutionary acquisition,” said Col. Scott Coale, director of the Global Hawk program office at the Aeronautical Systems Center here. “It’s proof that we are shortening the normal 10- to 15-year acquisition cycle, and fielding this system that much sooner to support warfighter needs.”

The Air Force plans to purchase 51 Global Hawks.

Even though this is the first production air vehicle, a demonstrator version already has seen combat twice in Afghanistan and Iraq, Coale said.

“The demonstrator flew just 3 percent of the imagery intelligence missions over Iraq but located 55 percent of the time-sensitive targets generated to destroy air defense equipment,” he said. “It also identified almost 40 percent of Iraq’s armor, and the Combined Air Operations Center attributed the accelerated defeat of the Republican Guard to Global Hawk.

“Our experience in Operation Iraqi Freedom really validated the Air Force’s confidence in the Global Hawk system,” Coale added. “It demonstrated the UAV’s potential to transform the way wars are fought in the future.”

Global Hawk is a high-altitude, long-endurance system that provides battlefield commanders near-real-time intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance information in day or night and all weather conditions. It operates autonomously at altitudes up to 65,000 feet for more than 36 hours. The Global Hawk has a range of 13,500 nautical miles and can image an area the size of Illinois in just 24 hours.

Lessons learned from Global Hawk’s two combat deployments will be instrumental in understanding how best to integrate unmanned systems with air, land, sea and space forces to create a transformed warfighting capability, said Scott Seymour, Northrop Grumman corporate vice president and Integrated Systems' sector president.

The first production Global Hawk is the eighth air vehicle built. Northrop Grumman produced the first seven under the advanced concept technology demonstration phase of the program.

The new production vehicle will complete a final series of system tests before its first flight later this month. Following a flight test program at Edwards Air Force Base, Calif., it will be delivered to the Air Force's 9th Reconnaissance Wing at Beale AFB, Calif.