The Global Hawk uav system comprises the RQ-4 air vehicle which is outfitted with
various equipment such as sensor
packages and communication systems and a
ground element consisting of a launch
and recovery element and a Mission Control Element (MCE) with ground
communications equipment.
Each RQ-4 air vehicle is powered by an
allison rolls-royce AE-3007h
turbofan engine with 7050 LBF, 31.4
kilonewtons thrust and carries a payload
of 2000 pounds 910 kilograms. The fuselage uses aluminum
semi-monocoque construction with a V-tail, the wings are made of composite
materials. The u.s air force's RQ-4 Global Hawk
drones will have a second life as range
hawks. Block 20 and block 30 global hawks will
be converted for use in hypersonic
missile testing.
The high altitude long endurance global
hawk drones have been in service since
the days of operation iraqi freedom. The drones have been flown extensively
in afghanistan and iraq and have also
been upgraded substantially over the
years with higher resolution, longer
range sensors and newer data processing
technology. Latency has been greatly reduced as well
in terms of sending real-time live video
feeds to command and control stations. The drones offer a unique blend of
endurance, range, surveillance cameras and
sensors.
The air force is now retiring some of
the block 20 variants and shifting them
into a testing and training mode in
effect giving them a new purpose. Many of the global hawks are being
delivered to grand sky air force base in
north dakota. Today is not a retirement but a
graduation for the global hawk block 20s. Senator John Hoeven said in a press release, these aircraft have the opportunity to
continue playing an important role in
our nation's defense as range hawks. the
aircraft we need to improve testing of
our nation's most advanced missiles.
Supporting training for hypersonic
weapons is a high priority given the
urgency of military hypersonic programs. The army, navy and air force are all fast
tracking hypersonic weapon systems in
development. These systems still need to be refined, adjusted and tested before ultimately
reaching operational status. The exact role of the global hawks may
vary but ability to collect and transmit
large amounts of data could be extremely
helpful in the ongoing testing and
development of hypersonic weapons.
Hypersonic weapons need to be monitored
for flight path trajectory, maneuvering
capacity, heat signature and precision
targeting. The global hawks could contribute to all
of this. The main advantage to using
global hawks for hypersonics weapons
testing related to an increased ability
to conduct testing and also perform
tests in a fashion less observable to
american adversaries. Using global hawks can allow for more
testing than is currently possible, something which will expedite the
delivery of hypersonic weapons.
Currently Dodd uses an aging fleet of
ships deployed across a pacific ocean
corridor to test hypersonic missiles. Hovind's press release said, Dodd is only able to conduct four to six
tests per year as it takes several weeks
to deploy and position the ships for
each test. the grand forks sky range program will
replace the need to operate expensive
ships for testing with modified global
hawks which could deploy quickly and
increase testing capacity through the
creation of additional testing corridors
in the pacific, hovind's release says.
