With the arrival of the first production Global Hawk unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) in the Middle East last year, the program transitioned from a mere concept demonstration project to a fully operational weapon system supporting the Iraq war. Though the high-flying aircraft still has a lot to prove, operators are growing increasingly confident in its intelligence-gathering capabilities. But it has yet to demonstrate its ability to carry more advanced sensors, so commanders remain unwilling to fully transfer high-altitude reconnaissance missions from the venerable U-2.

Aviation Week & Space Technology was granted exclusive behind-the-scenes access to Global Hawk operations in Iraq. Military Editor Amy Butler was the first journalist provided the first classified access to the Global Hawk ground station at Beale AFB, Calif., to observe an Iraq mission in November. The Air Force also gave clearance to watch a second mission--this time from the perspective of intelligence analysts--flown by a smaller Predator UAV supporting special operations soldiers in central Iraq. As a condition of the security clearance, AW&ST agreed to the unusual step of allowing the Air Force to review these articles for classification prior to publication. The service requested the full names of Global Hawk and Predator crewmembers not be published and asked for the removal of specific altitudes, distances and some other items they deemed "sensitive reconnaissance operations." The imagery appearing on the cover and on p. 57 was obtained outside of this agreement.

The push to secure Iraq's borders with Syria and Iran is putting the young Global Hawk unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) program squarely in the center of President Bush's Iraq strategy.

Sunni and Shiite factions are constantly being supported with weapons and personnel streaming into Iraq through the borders--while precious oil, which the U.S. said would float much of the war costs, streams out--and President Bush's new strategy to secure Iraq depends on the ability to stem this activity. U.S. work in the country is very visibly being handled by a modestly increasing number of Army soldiers and Marines on the ground, while the Air Force is quietly supplying them with crucial intelligence for their raids. A growing amount comes from the RQ-4A Global Hawk flying slightly more than 55,000 ft. overhead.

The Northrop Grumman UAV has been performing a great deal of the border patrolling missions in both eastern and western Iraq since the U.S. invaded the nation in 2003. Before last year, missions were flown by test birds, RQ-4A prototypes developed explicitly for a Pentagon-funded advanced concept technology demonstration. Although those two vehicles lasted well beyond their design life--50 sorties in ideal testing conditions--they did not have the reliability needed for continuous operations.

Two production Global Hawks, dubbed Block 10 and able to carry 2,000 lb. of payload, arrived at a base near Iraq in early 2006. Operators say the aircraft are performing reliably--each were executing missions over Iraq or Afghanistan for 24 hr. at a time, with a 24-hr. break. Since mid-January, the UAV operation has been surging, with the vehicles now flying for 24 hr. with a 4-hr. window of ground time for maintenance before embarking again.

Global Hawk's present success came only after a sometimes rocky development period, which reached lows with air vehicle crashes but a high of supporting combat operations abroad. As the Block 10 was being fielded, work on the larger Block 20 capable of carrying 3,000 lb. of payload ran nearly $2 billion over budget due to design problems and added requirements from the Air Force (AW&ST Apr. 4, 2005, p. 27).

During a classified mission, which was observed by this reporter, the aircraft makes numerous passes--some in rapid succession--of the Syrian and Iranian borders with Iraq. One such pass begins around 6:00 a.m. in Iraq, as the aircraft pilot directs the UAV toward the Syrian border using a computer keyboard. It had taken off around 2 p.m. the previous day under the control of a local launch and recovery element at a base near Iraq. Then it collected imagery in central Iraq using the synthetic aperture radar (SAR), including some images of a bomb crater following an improvised explosive device detonation west of Baghdad. Ground troops wanted pictures to see where personnel were scattering after the explosion.

En route northward across the Persian Gulf after takeoff, the aircraft had flown autonomously, and control is handed to the Beale-based pilot once the UAV reaches Iraq's southern border. Upon takeoff from the base south of Iraq, officials use code to discuss the UAV's mission--left for Iraq and right for the trip eastward over Pakistan to collect imagery of targets in Afghanistan.

Capt. Stephen M., a pilot seated at the Global Hawk Mission Control Element (MCE), a cramped trailer structure here, directs the UAV to the northern tip of Iraq where the borders of Iraq, Syria and Turkey meet, and begins his run; his commands are relayed via satellite communications. He circles the aircraft in a loop to stay just over several miles from the sensitive border. But Global Hawk's onboard electro-optical/infrared (EO/IR) and SAR sensors can peer over the border for a variety of activities. When approaching a border run, Global Hawk pilots perform a "90/270 maneuver," whereby they position the aircraft to run along the border without ever directly pointing the UAV's nose at it to avoid any misunderstandings from those on the other side.