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The U.S. Air Force has deployed Northrop Grumman’s RQ-4B Block 30 Global Hawk Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) during Advanced Battle Management System (ABMS) exercises for the U.S. European Command.
Global Hawk provided high-altitude, long-endurance support, delivering near real-time data to monitor the battlefield.
With imagery and signals intelligence collection capabilities, Global Hawk plays a key role in autonomous high-altitude, long-endurance systems in several missions.
“Global Hawk is critical today and indispensable tomorrow as we continue to invest in new capabilities to improve system flexibility, resilience and responsiveness,” said Leslie Smith, vice president, Global Hawk, Northrop Grumman.
“We are adopting proven advancements in technology and infrastructure to provide modernized cockpits, dynamic mission rerouting, OMS compliant payload computing, universal payload adapters and IP-based communications.”
Global Hawk is the premier autonomous high-altitude, long-endurance Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance (ISR) platform for the U.S. Air Force and global partners designed to provide high-resolution imagery of large geographic areas in near real-time for military field commanders.
The system provides a reliable combination of range, endurance and payload capacity, as demonstrated by the U.S. Air Force’s continuous use of Global Hawk to collect intelligence and deter regional threats for the past two decades.
To meet future operational needs, Global Hawk can extend and connect beyond its traditional strategic ISR mission and serve as an airborne network edge node, providing persistent communications relay and secure processing without putting personnel in harm’s way. These capabilities will be critical to helping realize the Department of Defense’s Joint-All Domain Command and Control vision.
