RQ-4A Global Hawk
General
Global Hawk, formerly identified as the Conventional High Altitude Endurance (Conv HAE) or Tier II+ UAV, is planned as the HAE UAV “workhorse” for missions requiring long-range deployment and wide-area surveillance or long sensor dwell over the target area. It will operate at ranges up to 3,000 nm from its launch area, with on-station loiter capability of 20 hours (at that range) at altitudes exceeding 60,000 ft. It will employ both EO/IR and SAR sensors to generate both wide-area and spot imagery while standing off from high-threat areas. It will have both LOS and satellite data link communications. The HAE Common Ground Segment (CGS) (see p. 35) provides both launch and recovery and its mission control elements (LRE and MCE), which are common and interoperable with DarkStar. The ACTD is in Phase II, which comprises fabrication and an extensive system test program to assure AV subsystem functions and AV-ground segment integration, to demonstrate system capabilities, and to reduce risk. Prime contractor is Teledyne Ryan Aeronautical (TRA), San Diego, CA.
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Air Vehicles (TBD) 1 Common Ground Segment for January 1998 |
Sensors: EO, IR and SAR
Radius: 5,556km (3000 nm) |
Funding (Then-Year $M): - RDT&E (Defense-wide |
FY97 67.8 |
FY98 96.0 |
a Depends on equipment deployed and deployment duration
FY 1997 Activities and Flight Preparations
Following ACTD Phase II contract award in May 1995, the TRA team fabricated the first two AVs and performed subsystem and system integration tests throughout the year. AV-1 will be used for airworthiness evaluations and full flight envelope demonstration, while AV-2 will carry the full sensor suite for system evaluations.
In a USD(A&T)-directed approach to remain within available ACTD funding, air vehicle production has been reduced and Phase III shortened from 24 to 15 months.
Rollout of AV-1 took place at TRA’s San Diego, CA, facility on 20 February 1997. By then, almost all subsystems required for first flight had been installed, but the full system’s software development and integration required more time. On 28 August, TRA transported AV-1 to the Air Force Flight Test Center at Edwards AFB, CA. During the next few weeks, the system was reassembled and functionally retested. Taxi testing began in October, with AV-1’s first flight planned for January 1998.
Schedule
Near-Term Plans
Phase II will extend to 1Q/FY 1999, followed by Phase III,
Test and Field Demonstrations, which will enable early user involvement
in both technical and operational demonstrations to evaluate military utility.
Program management is scheduled to transition from DARPA to an Air Force
joint program office during the second half of FY1998. In addition, the
following processes have been put in place:
- Early user participation is reflected by extensive Air Force involvement in the DARPA ACTD; and
- Early establishment of a sustainment team will ease Global Hawk’s transition to an acquisition program and eventual operations (in the event of a favorable ACTD exit decision).
Phase II will consist of a series of airworthiness flights by AV-1 and -2, followed by EO/IR and SAR payload flights by AV-2. Following demonstration of basic system abilities to fly safely and relay imagery to the ground, AV-1 and -2 will enter Phase III, flying in their first joint exercise in January 1999. AV-3, -4 and -5 will join them in flying more than 50 sorties and 1,000 hours over the ensuing 12 months for users to assess Global Hawk’s military utility by the time the HAE ACTD ends on 31 December 1999.
SAR
image of Tranquility, CA, at 65 km (35nm)
EO imaging
of Palos Verdes Estates, CA, at 21 km
Global
Hawk's initial taxi test at Edwards AFB, CA 16 October 1997