Ramon Lopez/WASHINGTON DC
The US Department of Defense is preparing to approve limited production of the Teledyne Ryan Aeronautical RQ-4A Global Hawk as the high-altitude, long-endurance unmanned air vehicle begins 13 months of US military user assessments and prepares to be deployed to Australia.
US Navy Rear Adm Robert Nutwell, a deputy assistant secretary of defence, says the Global Hawk technology demonstration is proceeding despite the 29 March crash, which remains under investigation but "appears to have been caused by a spurious flight termination command". The Global Hawk returned to flight on 18 May after removal of its flight termination system. This is activated by radio command from the ground, says USAF programme director Col Craig McPherson.
Nutwell says there are plans to make Global Hawk a formal acquisition programme. "US Defense Secretary William Cohen has stated his desire to do this as quickly as possible," says Nutwell, adding that project officials are assessing how much more development is needed to move from a demonstrator to an operational UAV. Included in the assessment is a long-term strategy for the possible replacement of the Lockheed Martin U-2 long-range manned reconnaissance aircraft.
A single Global Hawk is conducting the critical user assessments. A third RQ-4A has been built and delivered to Edward AFB, California, where it will begin airworthiness testing this month. Two more vehicles are being assembled and are expected to be completed and delivered to the USAF in September and December.
McPherson says a minimum of 40 RQ-4As would be built to carry the baseline electro-optical/infra-red sensor and synthetic aperture radar (SAR). There are 19 other roles eyed for Global Hawk, including signals intelligence, airborne early warning, foliage penetrating SAR, and airborne communications node payloads.
A Global Hawk fitted with the Joint Tactical Information Distribution System (JTIDS) Link 16 and UHF/VHF radio links could serve as a quick, cheap substitute for space-based communications. USAF proponents recommend that JTIDS terminals be installed on all Global Hawks.
McPherson says Global Hawk will operate in Australia for six weeks from March 2001as part of a project to demonstrates the UAV's interoperability with Australian surveillance systems. Talks are taking place about using Global Hawk in support of a Canadian military exercise.
Source: Flight International
