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Global Hawk is first UAV to cross Pacific

The RQ-4A Global Hawk completed on Wednesday the first nonstop crossing of the Pacific Ocean by an unmanned aerial vehicle, the Air Force announced.

The drone flew about 7,500 miles from Edwards Air Force Base, Calif., to Edinburgh, Australia, in about 23 hours, according to an Air Force press release.

“The flight demonstrated the potential of the world’s most advanced high-altitude, long-range, remotely operated aircraft,” the press release said.

Global Hawks will become an increasingly common sight in the Pacific in the coming years. A squadron of seven will be permanently assigned to Andersen Air Force Base, Guam, with the first arriving in 2009 or 2010.

Pacific Air Forces leaders have touted Global Hawk as the ideal intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance platform in the vast Pacific region because of its extraordinary range and endurance.

The Air Force is buying five Global Hawks in fiscal 2008 and has requested funding for five more in 2009.

The Navy is buying them, too, announcing a $1.16 billion developmental contract for Broad Area Maritime Surveillance drones awarded to Northrop.

Northrop’s Global Hawk beat out a highly modified unmanned Gulfstream G550 offered by Boeing and the Predator-based Mariner UAV offered by the Lockheed-General Atomics team.

The Navy drones — which will be expected to remain in the air for long periods of time and monitor a 2,000-nautical-mile radius — will collect information on enemies, do battle-damage assessments, conduct port surveillance and provide support to Navy forces at sea. Each aircraft is expected to serve for 20 years.

At 68 aircraft, the BAMS fleet will be the world’s largest purchase of long-endurance marinized UAVs.

It also opens the door for international Global Hawk sales. The Australian government — which invested $15 million in BAMS development in an agreement with the U.S. Navy — is expected to be first in line to buy. The U.K., Canada, Singapore and Japan are already considered potential buyers for the Navy version of the aircraft, said sea service officials. The U.S. Air Force also plans to host 11 Pacific Rim friends and allies, including the Australians, in Hawaii this spring to pitch the idea of a Global Hawk consortium in the region.

Global Hawk is expected to eventually replace the U-2 manned spy plane. The air service’s drone costs $27.6 million per copy, compared to an expected $55 million per BAMS UAV, including its sensors and communications suite, Balderson said.

The Navy will run the BAMS program independently from the air service’s efforts, with a separate mission and program office, although Balderson foresaw “an awful lot of communication and cooperation between the two programs.”

Minor modifications will be made to the baseline Block 20 RQ-4N Global Hawk to meet Navy requirements for surviving hail and bird collisions. Northrop will provide the airframe and its Multi-Function Active Sensor radar system. Subcontractors include Raytheon, which will provide a turreted targeting system; L-3 Communications, the communications suite integrator; and Rolls-Royce, which will make the AE 30007-H turbofan engine. Raytheon’s Intelligence and Information Systems division will design and develop the mission control system segment and the flight management system, which provides command-and-control functions.

The 68 UAVs will include six developmental aircraft: three test birds, three low-rate initial production (LRIP) aircraft to be used for operational evaluation, Balderson said.