ANDREW DOYLE / NORDHOLZ AIRBASE, GERMANY
A Global Hawk UAV flew successfully in European civil airspace this year, proving its credentials to fill Germany's SIGINT role
It seemed a far-off goal as recently as March, but a USAir Force Northrop Grumman RQ-4A Global Hawk unmanned air vehicle has finally flown in German skies, providing a much-needed boost to EADS and its ambitions to expand its defence interests and reinforce its transatlantic credentials.
The trials of the high-altitude, long-endurance UAV carrying a demonstration-configuration EADS electronic intelligence (ELINT) payload had originally been scheduled to take place at the start of this year. However, the plans were indefinitely postponed in March, with the USAF citing a lack of available aircraft due to its commitments in Iraq. The delay was also seen as symptomatic of cooling political relations between the USA and Germany over the war in Iraq.
There was no evidence of a strain in relations when the Global Hawk finally arrived at the German navy's Nordholz airbase near Cuxhaven on 15 October after a 21h nonstop flight from Edwards AFB in California. The aircraft used for the trial was the USAF's prototype RQ-4, which has been refurbished by Northrop Grumman as a technology testbed.
Ground infrastructure shipped to Nordholz included the Global Hawk system's launch and recovery element, used for mission planning and back-up control;and mission control element, for mission planning, command and control, communications monitoring and image dissemination.
European first
Six sorties were flown during the trial, which marked the first European basing of a Global Hawk and the culmination of three years of preparatory work. This began in July 2000 as an industrial initiative funded by EADS and Northrop Grumman and became a bilateral US/German project in 2001.
The trials were aimed at demonstrating that the "EuroHawk", fitted with the EADS ELINT payload, is a candidate to replace Germany's ageing Breguet Atlantic signals intelligence (SIGINT) aircraft from 2008, and operate safely in civil controlled airspace. The SIGINT role combines ELINT and communications intelligence (COMINT), the latter intercepting voice communications and data transfer.
The UAV - flying pre-programmed, autonomous missions over the North Sea - was used to detect, identify and track electromagnetic signals from a variety of sources, including airborne, shipborne and land-based air defence radars.
"It's been a monumental process for the project team to integrate this sensor on to Global Hawk...and fly it right on schedule during this demonstration," says USAF project manager Tom Moss.
Interface problems between the sensor and the aircraft prevented real-time data transmission on the first and second "technical integration" flights, says Lt Col Michael Hain, EuroHawk project manager at the German ministry of defence. However, it was possible to verify the performance of the sensor during the second sortie by storing the data on board the aircraft.
The first flight, on 21 October, lasted 4.8h and reached 59,200ft (18,000m), while the second, two days later, lasted 3.5h and achieved 59,000ft.
The third, 3.6h flight on 27 October achieved a full mission profile at up to 58,700ft, including raw data transmission, and demonstrated that "UAV operations above FL450 are possible without restrictions", says Hain. The 6.5h fourth flight reaching 60,500ft was used to verify assumptions on the capacity of the two datalinks, evaluate data distribution on the ground and show that the UAV "can be handled like a manned aircraft by air traffic control", says Hain.
A major milestone for the Global Hawk programme was its recent award by the US Federal Aviation Administration of a national certificate of authorisation (COA), which means only a single approval for a US cross-country flight is required rather than one from each FAA regional office. The flight of the RQ-4A to Germany in mid-October was the first to take advantage of the COA.
"The COA simplifies the process for operating Global Hawks in the USA," says Global Hawk system programme director Scott Coale. "Our goal is that the UAV will be treated just like a manned aircraft," he adds. "We have a road map of technical developments planned."
Air traffic agreement
Before the trials, an agreement was signed with air traffic control authorities to provide lead-in briefings for controllers, arrange frequency clearance for the datalinks and define emergency procedures. Eurocontrol's Maastricht centre required notification 50min before take-off, or the start of descent, to close a corridor in controlled airspace below FL450. The RQ-4A, which has a 35.4m-wingspan and typically loiters at 343kt (635km/h) at around 65,000ft for up to 24h, can reach 45,000ft 22min after take-off. Sensor area coverage from 65,000ft is around 104,000km2 (40,000 miles2).
"We have successfully integrated Global Hawk into a 'coalition-like' demonstration," says Coale. "In addition to installing the German sensor in the air vehicle, we have connected the Global Hawk mission control element to a German exploitation ground support station...German operators are able to analyse ELINT data real time and retask the sensor as required."
Coale says the fact that German air traffic controllers have become more comfortable with the UAV system is important because future deployments through European airspace "won't be such an unusual event".
The German MoD has not yet ruled out the manned Bombardier Global Express business jet as a candidate for its future SIGINT platform, but has excluded the Airbus A320 and General Atomics Predator B UAV. It believes the lifecycle costs of an unmanned system to replace the Atlantics will be only around 60% those of a manned system.
Hain says the MoD is "very satisfied" with the results of the EuroHawk demonstration, which will be "incorporated into the final procurement document" for submission to the government. He adds that development time could be "three years from a decision to the first prototype with operational capabilities. The Atlantics will probably not be seen beyond 2010."
The MoDis expected to issue a request for tenders for the Atlantic replacement early next year and select the winner by the third quarter of 2004, subject to parliamentary approval.
Sales opportunities
EADS Defence and Security Systems head Thomas Enders says the company hopes to sell the EuroHawk to other European nations. "We believe there are opportunities beyond the German customer, which we want to pursue as well," he says.
Enders envisages the EuroHawk becoming the "core element" of a networked information system, incorporating other reconnaissance systems. Germany's ELINT requirement also forms part of a push by Northrop Grumman to sell the proposed EuroHawk version of the RQ-4A to NATO. The UAV is included in the Northrop Grumman-led Transatlantic Industrial Proposed Solution consortium's NATO Alliance Ground Surveillance (AGS) bid as an unmanned adjunct to an Airbus A321.
Both aircraft would be equipped with different versions of the Transatlantic Cooperative AGS Radar, which is a melding of the USAF's in-development Northrop Grumman/Raytheon Multi-Platform Radar Technology Insertion Programme and Europe's Stand-off Surveillance and Target Acquisition Radar demonstrator.
EADS and Northrop Grumman will form a 50:50 joint programme company to manage development and production of the EuroHawk if the UAV is selected by Germany to meet its SIGINT requirement. The companies are hoping to have an unmanned SIGINT prototype flying by 2005.
Source: Flight International
