Unmanned Aerial Vehicles by Country, Part 4 Codexery

Northrop Grumman RQ-4 Global Hawk

High-altitude, long-endurance remotely-piloted surveillance aircraft operated by the USAF.

Last updated

The aircraft can survey up to 40,000 square miles of terrain per day.[1] On 28 February 1998, the Global Hawk's maiden flight occurred at Edwards Air Force Base in California.[2]

How it changed

The Global Hawk was developed in the 1990s alongside the stealthy Lockheed Martin RQ-3 DarkStar.[3] Budget cuts forced a choice between the two programs, and the Air Force selected the Global Hawk for its range and payload over DarkStar's stealth.[3][4] The airframe was redesigned to increase capabilities, producing the RQ-4B Block 20 with a 3,000 lb payload.[5] The Navy's MQ-4C differs mainly in its wing, which is stronger and has anti-icing and lightning strike protection.[6]

The German Air Force ordered a variant called the EuroHawk, but cancelled the program in May 2013 due to certification issues.[7][8] Retirement of the U.S. Air Force's Global Hawk fleet is planned for 2027.[9][10]

What the maker and period sources say

A 2022 Defense News article reported that the Pentagon was transferring 24 decommissioned Global Hawks to the SkyRange program for hypersonic testing.[11] The same source noted that an autonomous aircraft can be ready to support a flight test within hours, compared to 21 days for a ship.[11] By January 2024, three converted Block 10 Range Hawks had supported 10 hypersonic flight tests in fiscal 2023.[12] The same article noted that the BAMS-D provided more than 50% of maritime intelligence in theater.[13]

A Reuters report from 2013 stated that the cost per flight hour dropped from $40,600 in 2010 to $18,900 by mid-2013.[14]

References

  1. Wikipedia, "Northrop Grumman RQ-4 Global Hawk" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: "Global Hawk maintainers deliver ISR capability to warfighters". Dvidshub.net, 24 September 2015; "Northrop Grumman RQ-4 Global Hawk", National Museum of the United States Air Force; "List of the world’s largest countries and dependencies by area", Britannica (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  2. Wikipedia, "Northrop Grumman RQ-4 Global Hawk" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: "Northrop Grumman Unmanned Aircraft Systems Achieve 100,000 Flight Hours". Defensemedianetwork.com, 13 September 2013; Guinness World Records 2000: Millennium Edition,; "NASA Dryden Receives Two Early Global Hawk Aircraft", spaceref.com, 20 December 2007 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  3. Wikipedia, "Northrop Grumman RQ-4 Global Hawk" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: "DarkStar Tier III Minus", irp.fas.org (we also read that source) en.wikipedia.org
  4. "DarkStar Tier III Minus", irp.fas.org. facts only, no text reused. irp.fas.org
  5. Wikipedia, "Northrop Grumman RQ-4 Global Hawk" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: "RQ-4 Global Hawk fact sheet", US Air Force (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  6. Wikipedia, "Northrop Grumman RQ-4 Global Hawk" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Triton Testing Ahead of Schedule – News.USNI.org, 21 February 2014 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  7. Wikipedia, "Northrop Grumman RQ-4 Global Hawk" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: "RQ-4 Euro Hawk UAV Readying for Takeoff", Defense Industry Daily, 15 May 2013; Gubisch, "Germany pulls plug on Euro Hawk UAV programme", Flight International, 16 May 2013 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  8. Wikipedia, "Northrop Grumman RQ-4 Global Hawk" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Seliger, "Euro Hawk wird nicht zugelassen", Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, 13 May 2013; "German government culls costly Euro Hawk drone project". Deutsche Welle, 15 May 2013.; "Germany axes Euro Hawk drone program", www.defensenews.com, 14 May 2013; "De Maiziere defends Bundeswehr reforms and Euro Hawk halt". Deutsche Welle, 15 May 2013.; "Germany will not buy Euro Hawk drones." Reuters, 14 May 2013. (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  9. Wikipedia, "Northrop Grumman RQ-4 Global Hawk" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: "GAO-13-294SP, Defense Acquisitions Assessments of Selected Weapon Programs", US Government Accountability Office, March 2013, p. 113–14; US GAO, "Progress of the Global Hawk Advanced Concept Technology Demonstration", April 2000; "Soaring Costs Not Likely to Slow Down Global Hawk". National Defence Magazine, May 2006.; "GAO-13-294SP, Defense Acquisitions Assessments of Selected Weapon Programs", US Government Accountability Office, March 2013, p. 113–14; "Air Force’s RQ-4 Global Hawk drones headed for the boneyard in en.wikipedia.org
  10. Wikipedia, "Northrop Grumman RQ-4 Global Hawk" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: "Air Force’s RQ-4 Global Hawk drones headed for the boneyard in FY27". Breaking Defense, retrieved 27 July 2022. (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  11. ‘SkyRange’ uncrewed aircraft to speed hypersonic testing by 2024. Defense News. 16 September 2022.. facts only, no text reused. defensenews.com
  12. Airborne Range Hawks enabling more hypersonic flight tests. Defense News. 4 January 2024.. facts only, no text reused. defensenews.com
  13. "Navy's RQ-4A BAMS-D UAVs End 13-Year Mideast Deployment", Seapower Magazine, 22 June 2022. facts only, no text reused. seapowermagazine.org
  14. "Cost of flying Northrop’s Global Hawk down over 50%" – suasnews.com, 14 September 2013. facts only, no text reused. suasnews.com

Each numbered sentence above was checked against the source it cites before publication. Sentences citing Wikipedia adapt text from the English Wikipedia article Northrop Grumman RQ-4 Global Hawk (contributors), used under CC BY-SA 4.0; this entry is available under the same licence. Other sources were used for facts only; no text or images are copied from them.

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Sources

Compiled from Wikipedia and the sources listed below. Text from Wikipedia is available under CC BY-SA 4.0; this entry is adapted from it.

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