During her final days in office, former U.S. Air Force acquisition chief Sue Payton fired off a letter to Northrop Grumman saying she was “increasingly concerned” about the company’s management of the Global Hawk high-altitude unmanned aerial system program.

Payton’s April 7 letter to Gary Ervin, president of Northrop Grumman Aerospace Systems, outlines a series of problems that had contributed to her concerns, including: “poor design, workmanship and failure to follow production processes, which have contributed to delays in the Global Hawk development program,” according to a copy obtained by Aviation Week.

In response, Northrop Grumman “does not agree with Ms. Payton’s evaluation of the program,” according to Cynthia Curiel, vice president of communications for the company’s Aerospace Systems sector.

Yet, senior Air Force and Defense department officials are in the midst of establishing a new schedule for Global Hawk initial operational test and evaluation (IOT&E). Previously the target was to execute IOT&E for Block 20/30 aircraft by November.

Weatherington

Dyke Weatherington, deputy director of the Pentagon’s UAS Task Force, says he expects at least a six-month slip.The delay is due to “a number of relatively small issues,” but come on top of each other and “conservative” test approach and throughput issues at Edwards Air Force Base, according to Weatherington. “It has just piled up and they are behind on flight testing.”

Payton’s tone appears to have changed since a December interview with Aviation Week. At that time, she expressed concerns about the Multi-Platform Radar Technology Insertion Program (MP-RTIP) radar sensor bound for Global Hawk Block 40 but she did not include Global Hawk itself among the programs she considered to be under duress. In her April 7 letter, however, Payton says that problems with MP-RTIP and Global Hawk “compound my concern about an enterprise-wide failure [at Northrop] in supporting the Air Force.”

Payton notes the detachment of the landing gear door on the first Block 20 Global Hawk during its maiden flight, faults with the Integrated Mission Management Computer, problems with ruddervator torque that resulted in fleet grounding. and the “inadequate” quality of the Enhanced Integrated Sensor Suite designed for use on the Block 20 and 30 UAVs. She further says additional company sales of Global Hawk variants to NATO and Germany are detracting from a focus on the Air Force program, she adds.

Current USAF officials declined to comment about the letter despite repeated requests. David Van Buren is now the acting assistant secretary of the Air Force for acquisition since Payton left in mid-April. Weatherington said cost growth associated with the IOT&E slip is likely to be around “tens of millions” of dollars.

Moreover, more than half of the issues identified by Payton “were resolved long before the IOT&E date was established,” an industry source says. And Northrop has been praised privately for rapidly recovering from issues found during test flights, this source claims.

“We do know there has been a huge growth in testing requirements levied on the program, and we’ve been working with the Air Force to reduce those testing requirements as much as possible,” says Ed Walby, business development director for Northrop’s Global Hawk program.

Photo: Northrop Grumman