Global Hawk

High Altitude Long Endurance
Unmanned Aerial Reconnaissance System

The Northrop Grumman Global Hawk is a high-altitude, long-endurance (HALE) unmanned aerial system (UAS) designed to provide military field commanders with high resolution, near-real-time imagery of large geographic areas.

In 1995, Aurora became a key member of the Global Hawk team when it won the contract to build the V-tail of the RQ-4A Global Hawk. Since then, Aurora has steadily increased the scope of its Global Hawk work, which now includes almost-one third of each RQ-4, and all of the aircraft’s composite components except those found in the wing and radome areas.

The Block 10 Global Hawk (RQ-4A) has a wingspan of 116 feet (35.4 meters) and is 44 feet long (13.5 meters). It has a range as far as 12,000 nautical miles (22,236 kilometers) at altitudes up to 65,000 feet (19.8 km), flying at speeds approaching 340 knots (about 400 mph) for as long as 35 hours. During a typical mission, the aircraft can fly 1,200 miles to an area of interest and remain on station for 24 hours.

As a prelude to the Broad Area Maritime Surveillance (BAMS) development effort, the Navy has procured two Block 10 Global Hawk Maritime Demonstration vehicles from the Air Force, and is using them for CONOPS development, sensor technology experimentation, and fleet orientation.

The Block 20 Global Hawk represents a significant increase in capability over the Block 10 configuration. The larger Block 20 aircraft will carry up 3,000 pounds of internal payload and will operate with two-and-a-half times the power of its predecessor. Its open system architecture, a so-called “plug-and-play” environment, will accommodate new sensors and communication systems as they are developed to help military customers quickly evaluate and adopt new technologies.

When fully fueled for flight, the Block 20 variant weighs approximately 32,250 pounds (14,628 kg). More than half the system’s components are constructed of lightweight, high-strength composite materials, including its wings, wing fairings, empennage, engine cover, engine intake, and three radomes. Its main fuselage is standard aluminum, semi-monocoque construction.

On March 1, 2007, the first Block 20, designated AF-8, successfully completed its first flight from Northrop Grumman’s manufacturing facility in Palmdale, CA, to the Birk Flight Test Center at Edwards AFB, CA.