Global Hawk to Bridge Transatlantic Divide with Germany Ausflug
Much has been made in recent weeks of the battle between the aerospace
fortresses of Europe and the U.S., but the Global Hawk unmanned
aircraft appears to be flying above the stormy weather by making
a long-planned deployment to Germany later this year.
In the planning stages for more than a year, Northrop Grumman
and its European-partner for the effort EADS-sanctioned by the
U.S. Air Force and German defense ministry-plan to take important
steps this months towards launching the Euro Hawk project-a multinational
offshoot of Global Hawk. One of the U.S. unmanned aircraft is
slated to deploy to Nordholz in northern Germany in October to
assess the system's suitability for German wide-area surveillance
requirements.
The mission had been delayed several times, in part because the
high-flying UAV was otherwise occupied supporting U.S. military
operations in Afghanistan and Iraq and because, as usual, it took
longer than anticipated to finalize the bi-national agreement.
One of Northrop Grumman's Global Hawks (AV 1) is slated to flight
test the EADS electronic intelligence payload later this month.
Ground checks have already been conducted as well as two test-flights
last year to verify sensor compatibility, during which the system
detected radar emissions. The same aircraft will make the trip
to Germany, only the second deployment of Global Hawk outside
of combat operations. The first trip was to Australia to demonstrate
the system's utility in a maritime surveillance mode.
Global Hawk is slated to complete four missions in Germany, not
counting the non-stop ferry flights from and back to Edwards AFB,
California. The missions will be flown over the North Sea.
Euro Hawk would be a derivative of the USAF's RQ-4A Global Hawk
to replace aging Breguet Atlantic intelligence gathering aircraft.
