Global Hawk

Its review followed comments by USAF acquisitions head David Van Buren that he was “unhappy” with the management of the program.

“Testing and delivery has been slower than expected,” Van Buren told US reporters in describing the Block 30 version of the aircraft in mid June. “I am not happy with the pace of that program and we are not happy with the cost of the air vehicle,” he said, adding that the pace at which the system was maturing and proposals were being submitted was “excruciating. ” Northrop Grumman responded in a release just days before the DAB hearing, reinforcing the program’s accomplishments since its inception in the mid 1990s and explaining how the company is addressing some of the issues raised by Van Buren.

“Global Hawk is performing 24 hours a day, seven days a week. It’s conducting combat and civil missions around the world, while at the same time the Air Force is putting it through test and evaluation paces here at home to vet the system for final production. Global Hawk is performing well in these tests,” Gary Ervin, president of Northrop Grumman Aerospace Systems said. “Its unprecedented performance proves its value to our customers every day with a 95 per cent on-station record, low sustainment and operating costs and high value intelligence. Frankly, it outperforms any other high altitude . . . reconnaissance and intelligence system in theatre today. It’s in a class of its own. ” To date, 11 Global Hawks have been delivered to the USAF out of a total requirement for about 83 aircraft, two of which were the original concept demonstration aircraft pressed into service at short notice following the September 11 terror attacks, and which have since been transferred to NASA for high altitude research work. In the almost nine years since then, USAF Block 10 RQ-4A and Block 30 RQ-4B aircraft have flown more nearly 1700 combat sorties over 33,300 hours and collected more than 600,000 images.

It’s unclear exactly where Van Buren’s comments were coming from; whether there are genuine concerns about the program’s ability to deliver; or if it was posturing on the Air Force’s part for future production contract negotiations; or whether the service is struggling to overcome a cultural barrier to unmanned systems in general, and in particular to the high flying replacement for that cold war icon, the U-2. Test community sources also point to a large, late notice increase in the number of test points the Block 40 version has been required to complete, and say this can be a major and time consuming issue for developmental unmanned systems which have limited access to the various test ranges compared to manned aircraft.

BAMS

Over at the US Navy Global Hawk program, the Broad Area Maritime Surveillance (BAMS) version appears to be on track to commence construction of the first aircraft in September. The program successfully passed its preliminary design review (PDR) process in February and had cleared all the action items from the PDR by May, and Northrop Grummanofficials anticipate entering the critical design review process in the late 2010/ early 2011 timeframe.

“We’ve made very good progress, the program is executing cleanly and we’re hitting all the OSD (Office of the Secretary of Defense) and Navy staff obligation and execution benchmarks,” Northrop Grumman’s director of BAMS UAS business development, Walter Kreitler, told Australian Aviation. “We’re spending the money and getting the work done on time which is critical in a developmental program. ” The RQ-4N version of Global Hawk was selected to fulfil the 68 aircraft BAMS requirement in 2008, and Northrop Grumman is currently on a five year system design and development contract to produce two development aircraft and support these through a complete operational test and evaluation program.

The BAMS aircraft – the RQ-4N designation was for marketing purposes – is outwardly similar to its Air Force RQ-4B cousins. The major components will come from the same suppliers, and final assembly will be on the same production line in Palmdale, California.

The BAMS aircraft has the same outer mould line as the Air Force Block 40 model, but it features a modified wing leading edge and engine cowling with antiicing and increased bird-strike resistance, a sense and avoid radar for operations in US national airspace, and a revised internal structure to support the different sensor suite it will carry. Sensors include a Raytheon 360 degree maritime surveillance radar, an electro optical/infra red (EO/IR) turret, and various communications sensors and relay packages.

While anti-icing and bird-strike protection was deemed necessary in the event the BAMS aircraft was required to descend to lower altitudes for visual or EO/IR identification of a small surface vessel, this is not expected to be a common occurrence operationally. A high altitude surveillance aircraft such as a Global Hawk can build up and maintain an operating picture with a huge field of regard and massive levels of situational awareness, most of which would be lost if that aircraft was forced to descend for a visual check.

BAMS systems will be employed from five US Navy bases worldwide and will have the capability of operating overlapping orbits in key maritime domains on a 24/7/365 basis.

While Global Hawk has long been considered the high altitude, long endurance (HALE) UAV of choice to fulfil a RAAF requirement to replace part of its AP-3C Orion fleet under Project Air 7000 Phase 1, it is the maritime surveillance capabilities of BAMS which are of most interest to the project’s planners. But for various reasons the ADF has continued to put off its commitment to the aircraft, instead now preferring to acquire the manned element of the AP-3C replacement, the Boeing P-8A Poseidon first, and pushing a decision on the unmanned element back as far as 2019.

But recent political posturing by both sides of Australian politics over the increasing influx of refugee boats from Indonesia has brought the maritime surveillance issue back to the fore, with opposition leader Tony Abbot saying in March that a coalition government, if elected, would immediately move to acquire a small number of Global Hawks to bolster the security of Australia’s maritime approaches.

Ideologies aside, there is certainly a rapidly increasing level of awareness and appreciation across the Australian military and political spectrum of the capabilities the Global Hawk could bring to the border security conundrum. There is also concern within some elements of Defence of a reduction in maritime surveillance capabilities during the AP-3C to P-8A transition in the 2016-18 timeframe, with some calling for the unmanned element to be acquired first to bolster that anticipated manned transition shortfall.

But two stumbling blocks stand in the way of a rapid Global Hawk acquisition.

The main issue is the BAMS version of Global Hawk is not scheduled to enter initial operational service (IOC) with the US Navy until 2015, and so will not be available for foreign sales before this. Therefore, a best case in-service scenario for the RAAF would be two or three aircraft around 2018 unless a non-maritime optimised version such as the Block 20 or Block 40 was to be acquired earlier than this.

The other is a perception within the ADF that the BAMS program may not progress beyond the SDD phase into production due to US budget uncertainties and the program being viewed as a niche capability when compared to greater need ‘core’ capabilities.

But while the program continues on its development path, for the border security pundits it’s worth exploring the fact that, on paper at least, the Global Hawk has a clear superiority in endurance and persistence over manned surveillance aircraft. Northrop Grumman says the Global Hawk’s mid mission fuel burn is about 230kg per hour compared to about 1900-2050kg for an AP-3C, and as much as 3180kg per hour for a P-8A. A quick extrapolation of these figures would see a Tindal based Global Hawk able to maintain an orbit over the Ashmore Islands northwest of Darwin for more than 24 hours, compared to between six and seven hours for an AP-3C or P-8. Further afield, a Tindal based Global Hawk could stay on station in the area around Christmas Island for more than 15 hours compared to less than two hours for its manned equivalents.

Meanwhile, the German Euro Hawk development of the Northrop Grumman Global Hawk made its first flight from Palmdale, California, on June 29, flying a two hour sortie before landing at nearby Edwards AFB.

The Euro Hawk is a development of the Block 20 Global Hawk, and encompasses an EADS designed signals intelligence package.

“Formed as a 50-50 joint venture company by Northrop Grumman and EADS Defence & Security, EuroHawk GmbH acts as the national prime contractor for the German MoD throughout the lifecycle of the Euro Hawk system,” said Neset Tuekenmez, CEO of EuroHawk GmbH.

Germany has ordered four Euro Hawks, with the aircraft planned to replace manned Bregeut Atlantique aircraft.