DTN News - GLOBAL HAWK DRONES: US Deploys First Advanced Drones To Japan, Improving Its Ability To Watch North Korea, China

DTN News - GLOBAL HAWK DRONES: US Deploys First Advanced Drones To Japan, Improving Its Ability To Watch North Korea, China

Source: DTN News - - This article compiled by K. V. Seth from reliable sources Eric Talmadge, The Associated Press
(NSI News Source Info) TORONTO, Canada - May 30, 2014: MISAWA AIR BASE, Japan – The U.S. Air Force has deployed two of its most advanced long-distance surveillance drones to a base in northern Japan over the past week, enhancing its ability to monitor nuclear activities in North Korea and Chinese naval operations.

The deployment of the two unarmed Global Hawk drones to Japan, a key U.S. ally, is intended to demonstrate Washington’s commitment to security in Asia as part of its rebalancing of forces to the Pacific. But it will likely rankle with China and North Korea, which have been working to improve their own unmanned aircraft fleets.

Lt. Gen. Sam Angelella, commander of U.S. Forces Japan, said Friday the drones will remain here until October, when the typhoon season on the drones’ home base on the Pacific island of Guam is over. Similar rotations from Guam to Misawa are expected in the future, though Angelella said no firm plans have been made. He refused to comment on the specific missions the drones will carry out but noted that the Global Hawk’s “capabilities are well known.”

The drone is considered particularly valuable because it can conduct long-range missions without the limitations of pilot fatigue, is able to fly at a maximum 60,000 feet (18.3 kilometres) and can “loiter” around any particular site of interest for 24 hours or more.

From Japan, it can easily monitor areas on the Asian mainland — including North Korea’s nuclear sites — or targets at sea — such as areas where China and other countries have had confrontations over territory.

The military keeps much of the Global Hawk’s work secret, but Angelella spoke of its use in humanitarian missions including Japan’s 2011 tsunami and the devastating typhoon that hit the Philippines last year. More recently, he said, the drone was used in surveillance work following the mass abduction of more than 300 girls in Nigeria by Islamic extremists.

The deployment of the drones will also help Japan familiarize itself with the aircraft. Tokyo plans to buy three Global Hawks.

Angelella said the aircraft has proven itself to be one of the most reliable in the Air Force. While still under development, the Global Hawk began supporting overseas contingency operations two months after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. As of September last year, it had surpassed 100,000 flight hours, three-quarters of which were performed in combat.

Safety is a key factor in Japan because many U.S. bases here are located in heavily populated areas.

Under a mutual security pact, the U.S. maintains about 50,000 troops in Japan, which is home to several major air bases, the headquarters of the U.S. 7th Fleet and more than 10,000 Marines.

Though some residents of the city of Misawa have raised concerns about the drone deployment, opposition has been notably muted compared to the often emotional and deep-rooted protests against the deployment of new aircraft or troops on the southern Japan island of Okinawa, where most of the U.S. military in Japan is based.

But the deployment comes at a politically sensitive time.

Tokyo is now hotly debating a significant revamp of the role of its military forces, which have since World War II been rebuilt and are now one of the strongest in Asia, though they remain restricted to a narrowly defined strategy of national defence.

Citing the perceived threats from China and North Korea, Japan’s Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is championing an effort to change that and allow the Japanese military to be able to fight more closely with U.S. troops in contingencies.


Abe’s focus has been on what the Japanese military should be allowed to do when an ally defending Japan comes under attack — what the Japanese call collective self-defence. But opponents fear loosening restrictions will open the door for the Japanese military to be drawn into broader U.S. conflicts that don’t have a direct connection to Japan’s national defence.

*Link for This article compiled by K. V. Seth from reliable sources Eric Talmadge, The Associated Press
*Speaking Image - Creation of DTN News ~ Defense Technology News 
*Photograph: IPF (International Pool of Friends) + DTN News / otherwise source stated
*This article is being posted from Toronto, Canada By DTN News ~ Defense-Technology News Contact:dtnnews@ymail.com 
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DTN News - DEFENSE NEWS: The Battle Over Global Hawk

DTN News - DEFENSE NEWS: The Battle Over Global Hawk

Source: DTN News - - This article compiled by Roger Smith from reliable sources Air Force Times
(NSI News Source Info) TORONTO, Canada - July 18, 2013: June is the start of the rainy season in the South Pacific, six months of storms that come in fast and unpredictable. And when the wind starts blowing, that takes its toll on U.S. intelligence-gathering far off in North Korea.

A substantial amount of the intel on the Hermit Kingdom comes from the three massive Global Hawk unmanned surveillance planes based at Andersen Air Force Base, Guam.

Because of special flight restrictions, the Global Hawks can’t fly over thunderstorms, nor, without a way to see the clouds ahead, can they go around them. So whenever a hint of bad weather arose on the route Global Hawk was assigned last year from Guam, the missions were canceled. Last year, the unmanned planes were grounded for a month, says a source with knowledge of the operation.

This susceptibility to South Pacific cyclones is adding new energy to the political hurricane raging in Washington over the future of the expensive unmanned aircraft.

It’s been a year and a half since the Air Force said it no longer needs the Global Hawk. The service argued that the planes, each built for more than $200 million, don’t do their jobs as well as the time-tested U-2 manned spy plane. So the Air Force wants to take the entire fleet of 18 Global Hawks and park them in the “boneyard” — the aircraft storage facility at Davis-Monthan Air Force Base, Ariz.

Now the battle lines are forming in what may be an epic contracting war. On the one side, swinging hard, is Global Hawk-maker Northrop Grumman. It has some powerful arguments, and it has members of Congress who say the Air Force needs to fall in line. On the other side is the Air Force, fighting to keep the U-2, which was built by Lockheed Martin.

'Essential to national security'
At 70,000 feet, a U-2 pilot flying northwest along the boundary of North Korean airspace can turn his head to the right, and through the visor of his spacesuit, he will see the silhouette of Earth’s curvature. Then he will see a silent green phosphorescent flash before the sky suddenly goes dark.

They call that flash “the terminator.” No U-2 pilot ever forgets it. Until just two years ago, the U-2 program itself — the workhorse of high-altitude intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance for 60 years — was due to be terminated, too. For a time, the Global Hawk versus U-2 debate revolved around age. The U-2, its critics said, was of a different era, before unmanned aerial vehicles. After all, any pilot flying the U-2 now wasn’t even born when the program started back in 1955.

But now, as one Air Force pilot points out, “This is not your grandfather’s U-2.” For example, today’s U-2S jets have pressurized cockpits, although the pilots still wear spacesuits in case anything goes wrong.

Lockheed Martin’s Robert Dunn said the U-2S has a long way to go before it needs to be decommissioned.

“The airplanes we are flying today are certified to 75,000 flight hours. The average airframe is 14,000,” he said.

If the U-2 is the aging champion, then in the other corner of the ring is the upstart Global Hawk. A feat of modern engineering, the autonomous plane can fly for 32 hours straight when conditions are right. That’s far longer than the U-2, though not as high and with a smaller payload.

Ironically, the now-costly Global Hawk program was birthed during the cutbacks of the Clinton years. The Air Force was enthusiastic about its huge, high-flying unmanned plane, and it pushed for more and more capacity for the planes.

The first operational lot, the Block 10s, couldn’t carry enough weight, so the next generation was bigger and more ambitious. It was about more sensors, more power, more payload.

Initially pitched as a $35 million aircraft, costs ballooned over the years by 284 percent, according to the Congressional Research Service. Much of that was due to the Air Force’s shifting requirements. (It’s now estimated at about $220 million per plane including development costs.) The Air Force, for a time, was the Global Hawk’s biggest cheerleader, although the history has been complex and sometimes contradictory.

In early 2011, for example, the Defense Department’s director of operational test and evaluation said “the system was not operationally effective for conducting near-continuous, persistent ISR operations.”

Then, in June 2011, shortly before the Global Hawk was fielded, Air Force officials certified the project as “essential to national security.” It was meant to ensure that Congress continued to fund the program, but the proclamation would begin to haunt the service just months later.

Reversing course
In January 2012, the Air Force announced a drastic turnaround: It would terminate the Global Hawk program.

It provoked a firestorm — and a heavy public advocacy campaign on Capitol Hill by those who support the plane. Like many major modern weapons, its subcontractors are widely distributed across the U.S., ensuring a broad base of political support. Northrop Grumman’s website notes that all but 15 states manufacture some part of the Global Hawk. Experts were confounded that the Air Force had changed its mind so quickly.

And Congress put its foot down.

In the 2013 National Defense Authorization Act signed earlier this year, Congress told the Air Force it would have to fly the Global Hawks it had already — 16 plus two being built — through the year 2014. The service “shall maintain the operational capability of each RQ-4 Block 30 Global Hawk unmanned aircraft system belonging to the Air Force or delivered to the Air Force.”

And to make sure no Global Hawk went on to the boneyard, the act was specific: No money “may be obligated or expended to retire, prepare to retire, or place in storage an RQ-4 Block 30 Global Hawk unmanned aircraft system.”

All of which sets the stage for the current conflict on the Hill.

Meanwhile, the 2013 Defense Appropriations Act went further. The service had resisted ordering new planes, on the assumption that by the time they were delivered, they’d be going right to the boneyard. Now the Air Force was told to order three of the planes that had previously been budgeted for in 2012. “The Secretary of the Air Force shall obligate and expend funds previously appropriated,” for the plane. But the Air Force has resisted. As another officer said, “Why are they making us spend money on something we don’t want or need?” That attitude has irked some Northrop Grumman supporters on Capitol Hill.

In May, Rep. James Moran, D-Va., and Rep. Buck McKeon, R-Calif., wrote a stinging letter to Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel demanding that the Air Force do what it was told.

“The Air Force has continued to ignore clear Congressional intent,” they said.

And the House Armed Services Committee in June voted for a new defense authorization bill that would force the Air Force to use the Global Hawks until 2016.

Chasing solutions
There is much disagreement on how much it would cost to upgrade the Global Hawk Block 30s, where there are shortfalls that need addressing. Take the sensors.

The Air Force reported to Congress that “upgrades to the GH Block 30 to achieve parity with the U-2 program require an expenditure of approximately $855 million.”

It might not be able to fly as high, but at least it could photograph as clearly.

Northrop Grumman’s defenders, eager to get the Air Force to change its mind, say the service is way off the mark. The company has offered to put better cameras on the Global Hawk for $48 million.

“We’ve looked at that and we’ve addressed it,” said Tom Vice, Northrop Grumman’s president of Aerospace Systems. “We looked at how to open up our architecture. We’ve offered a firm fixed-price offer to the U.S. Air Force to integrate the SYERS sensors onto Global Hawk. And that would cost the Air Force only 6 percent of what the Air Force believed it would cost to upgrade the current Block 30 cameras. Guaranteed price; no risk to the government.”

Northrop Grumman’s $48 million versus the Air Force $855 million is an unresolved discrepancy, for the moment. One reason it can work: The company wants to simply remove the cameras from the competition — essentially cannibalizing the U-2.

As for the Global Hawk’s getting grounded in places like Guam, where it can’t be relied on during the rainy season, the plane’s supporters say that’s the Air Force’s fault in the first place because of onerous restrictions. Supporters argue that requiring the plane to fly 10,000 feet over clouds, and limiting it to one route was the problem that caused it to be grounded excessively. Now it’s been given alternative routes, which supporters say will cut back on canceled missions. The difficulty has been that Global Hawk is unmanned, without “sense and avoid” technology to meet air traffic requirements. Normally, a pilot could see the clouds and steer around them, but without a pilot, the Global Hawk can’t do that.

Northrop Grumman has told the Air Force it can put “weather diversion” cameras in the Guam-based Global Hawks. That way, the operators back at base will be able to see the clouds and reroute, just as they could if the pilot was flying.

The company pitched the idea to the Air Force, offering to install the cameras for $7 million.

Bias against drones?
There are some analysts who believe that, in spite of the Global Hawk’s shortfalls, the Air Force is making a mistake.

“However you cut it, I think there is a good case for Global Hawk Block 30,” says Mark Gunzinger of the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments. “The reasons cited for retiring the Block 30s don’t stand up under scrutiny. It’s worth questioning.”

But if the Air Force is really being disingenuous in terminating the Global Hawk, as its critics say, what would be the motive? That’s where the Northrop Grumman defenders are having a difficult time.

Is it, perhaps, a lingering bias against drones, a preference for the swaggering days of the piloted plane? At a House hearing in May where he castigated the Air Force for its decision on Global Hawk, Moran said as much: “The U-2, as you know, has a pilot. And I suspect that’s the real issue — the pilotless versus the piloted craft, even though the U-2 has been around longer than even some of the members of this subcommittee have been alive.”

Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. Mark Welsh protested. “Pilot being in the airplane had absolutely nothing to do with it. I couldn’t care less. We want the platform that will do the best job of accomplishing the mission assigned — manned or unmanned — and we’ve said that all along,” Welsh said at a May 9 House Appropriations defense subcommittee hearing.

And after all, the Air Force has hundreds of unmanned planes and continues to develop new ones. It’s hard to argue that the service simply doesn’t like unmanned aviation anymore.

If not a bias against planes, others say that it is just stubbornness: The Air Force has dug itself into an untenable position and because of bureaucracy, is unwilling to back down, they say. Still, that does seem like a stretch, given what’s at stake. If the Air Force still says it doesn’t need to spend the hundreds of millions of dollars on a program it finds inadequate, it will be hard to argue with that in an era when sequestration is cutting everyone’s budget.

This article first appeared in the July issue of C4ISR Journal.

MEASURING UP
Here’s a side-by-side comparison of the two platforms:
■ Power. The U-2’s engine, with 17,000 pounds of thrust, can push the plane beyond 65,000 feet within a half-hour. “It climbs like a homesick angel,” said a U-2 pilot. The Global Hawk, powered by an engine with just 7,500 pounds of thrust, can take four hours to reach its ceiling of 60,000 feet, critics say.
■ Endurance. Global Hawk is the hands-down winner. It can fly up to 32 hours before returning to base. Some say that’s what matters. “This is no time to be getting rid of your long-range, long-endurance assets,” said Rebecca Grant, an analyst who has done work for Northrop Grumman. The U-2 is stretching it to fly 14 hours; more typical flights last 10. But its defenders note that the manned plane can be based closer to the action, say, in South Korea, where flight restrictions bar unmanned aircraft.
■ Altitude. Here, U-2 is the king, with a publicly disclosed ceiling of 70,000 and a true ceiling somewhere about 75,000 feet. Global Hawk tops out at 60,000 feet. For the Air Force, this has become the central issue. First, the U-2 gets above the weather.
The worst storm in the world is “just fireworks below,” said a pilot. But the other issue is visibility. Simple geometry allows the U-2 to see farther into enemy territory than the Global Hawk.
That really makes a difference. A ceiling of 60,000 feet versus 70,000 doesn’t sound like much, but look at it this way: The main job of the plane in the near future will be flying over the borders of such countries as China and North Korea from international airspace.
The Air Force likes to see 80 or 100 miles into adversaries’ territory, and the U-2’s added height lets it do that.
■ Sensors. That’s what it’s all about. At first glance, the Global Hawk has the edge. It carries three sensors for its intelligence missions, and the U-2 carries only two. On top of that, the Global Hawk can switch in midflight between electro-optical and synthentic aperture radar. “To have the ability for a single weapons system to carry a SAR radar, electro-optical package, and SIGINT package,” said Tom Vice, Northrop Grumman’s president of Aerospace Systems, “it allows to you to fuse all three different types of intelligence products together at the same time.”
But the Air Force says the U-2 has a far better electro-optical sensor that gives it a hands-down win in the category. In a report to Congress this spring, the Air Force flatly said that “the current U-2 sensors are superior to those of the GH.” Key to that is a camera called SYERS II (Senior Year Electro-optic Reconnaissance System) manufactured by UTC Aerospace. It’s multispectral, unlike the Global Hawk’s camera, and it sees farther.
■ Price. The U-2s were all built years ago. It’s a bit like owning a 2000 Honda Accord — it’s already paid for, it will keep on going and it drives great. The Global Hawks, on the other hand, are still coming off the production line. But Northrop Grumman argues that most of the development costs have been spent anyway, and the kinks of building a new system have only recently been ironed out. The Air Force says at this point that it is just spending good money on a system that doesn’t have what it takes.
As for operating costs, they are equivalent — $33,500 per hour.
But as Northrop Grumman points out, the Global Hawk doesn’t need training flights and requires fewer takeoffs and landings. Even the Air Force, in a recent report, acknowledged that “the persistence advantage of [Global Hawk] manifests itself in lower execution costs.”
Among its various proposals, Northrop Grumman has made one that stands out. It is offering to provide a 10-year contractor logistics contract for the Global Hawk Block 30 for $250 million, as a fixed price. It made the offer, though, months after the Air Force decided to terminate the program.


*Link for This article compiled by Roger Smith from reliable sources Air Force Times
*Speaking Image - Creation of DTN News ~ Defense Technology News 
*Photograph: IPF (International Pool of Friends) + DTN News / otherwise source stated
*This article is being posted from Toronto, Canada By DTN News ~ Defense-Technology News Contact:dtnnews@ymail.com 
©COPYRIGHT (C) DTN NEWS DEFENSE-TECHNOLOGY NEWS

DTN News - DEFENSE NEWS: U.S. DoD Awarded Contract To Northrop Grumman For Radar System On Global Hawk

DTN News - DEFENSE NEWS: U.S. DoD Awarded Contract To Northrop Grumman For Radar System On Global Hawk 
Source: DTN News - - This article compiled by Roger Smith from reliable sources U.S. DoD issued No. 159-12 March 7, 2012 - DTN News
(NSI News Source Info) TORONTO, Canada – March 9, 2012: Northrop Grumman Corp., Aerospace Systems, El Segundo, Calif., is being awarded a $24,484,465 cost-plus-fixed-fee contract for Multi Platform Radar Technology Insertion Program radar system development and demonstration alignment with the Global Hawk Block 40 program schedule.  

The location of the performance is El Segundo, Calif. Work is expected to be completed on Aug. 31, 2013.  Electronic Systems Center, Hanscom Air Force Base, Mass., is the contracting activity (F19628-00-C-0100 P00213).

*Link for This article compiled by Roger Smith from reliable sources U.S. DoD issued No. 159-12 March 7, 2012 - DTN News
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*This article is being posted from Toronto, Canada By DTN News ~ Defense-Technology News Contact:dtnnews@ymail.com 
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DTN News: Northrop Grumman Highlights Unmanned Systems Capabilities at UV Europe 2010

DTN News: Northrop Grumman Highlights Unmanned Systems Capabilities at UV Europe 2010

Source: DTN News / Northrop Grumman Dt. June 29, 2010

(NSI News Source Info) TORONTO, Canada - June 30, 2010: Northrop Grumman Corporation is participating in the UV Europe conference and exhibition where it will highlight its comprehensive capabilities and experience in unmanned systems. Northrop Grumman is an industry leader in the ISR domain and has been in the unmanned systems business for more than 60 years, providing 100,000 unmanned systems to military customers in the U.S. and around the world. In unmanned ground systems, the company has served the military, explosive ordnance disposal and hazardous materials units and other first responders for more than 25-years as a leading provider of mobile robotic systems for applications in hazardous and potentially life-threatening environments. UV Europe takes place 29-30 June 2010 at the Husa President Park Hotel, Brussels, Belgium and will address military and civil unmanned systems operating in all three environments – air, land and sea. Northrop Grumman representatives will be among the speakers at the conference. Gene Fraser, sector vice president, Northrop Grumman Aerospace Systems will give a presentation on unmanned aircraft systems in the maritime irregular warfare environment including piracy, maritime patrol and non-combat operations. Trevor Hughes, head of Engineering, Unmanned Ground Vehicles for Northrop Grumman Information Systems sector in Europe will speak on unmanned ground vehicles in the explosive ordnance disposal role. “As unmanned aircraft systems technologies mature, modern armed forces are realizing that the integration of autonomous systems into operational networks can result in considerable savings while significantly improving mission capability,” said Fraser. “Unmanned aircraft offer vital persistent intelligence, surveillance, target acquisition and reconnaissance capabilities for peacekeeping and peace enforcement missions but also have an increasingly important role in maritime patrol and non-combat operations.” Northrop Grumman announced this month that it has been awarded a $517 million (£350.6 million) agreement to develop up to three Long Endurance Multi-Intelligence Vehicle (LEMV) hybrid airship weapons systems for the U.S. Army. These new systems will be capable of providing persistent surveillance for more than three weeks at a time. Northrop Grumman is providing the Euro Hawk® based on the Block 20 Global Hawk high-altitude, long-endurance (HALE) UAS. Euro Hawk® will serve as the German Air Force’s HALE SIGINT system and is the first international configuration of the RQ-4 Global Hawk. The company is also prime contractor for the NATO Alliance Ground Surveillance (NATO AGS) system, currently in development at the company’s Melbourne, Fla. facility, in which the Block 40 RQ-4 version of the Global Hawk unmanned aircraft UAV is a key component. Northrop Grumman has been a leading supplier of unmanned ground vehicles for more than 25-years. From its UK facility in Coventry the company designs, engineers and manufactures a range of unmanned ground vehicles and equipment specifically configured for explosive ordnance disposal (EOD), security and surveillance sensing, HazMat and chemical, biological, radiological, and nuclear applications. Northrop Grumman manufactures the Wheelbarrow vehicle, one of the most capable and reliable unmanned vehicles for EOD operations available. The company is also the prime contractor for CUTLASS the next generation of robotic vehicle for bomb disposal operations being developed for the UK MoD.

*This article is being posted from Toronto, Canada By DTN News ~ Defense-Technology News, contact: dtnnews@ymail.com

DTN News: NASA's Unmanned Global Hawk Aircraft Conducts Ground Breaking Science Missions

DTN News: NASA's Unmanned Global Hawk Aircraft Conducts Ground Breaking Science Missions

Source: DTN News / Northrop Grumman

(NSI News Source Info) SAN DIEGO, - June 11, 2010: NASA's unmanned Global Hawk aircraft, developed by Northrop Grumman Corporation (NYSE:NOC), completed four science flights over the Pacific Ocean during the month of April. The flights were part of the Global Hawk Pacific (GloPac) mission, a joint project between NASA and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), with Northrop Grumman support. The GloPac mission flights revolutionized the collection of data in the stratosphere. Fitted with 11 science instruments, Global Hawk acquired and transmitted data that has never before been accessible through either manned flights or satellites. Flights reached up to 65,000 feet where information was collected from the air as well as the water and polar ice below. Data from the science instruments were downloaded in real-time to NASA Dryden Flight Research Center where scientists were able to analyze the data, and if necessary, ask the Global Hawk pilot to adjust the flight path to optimize data collection. Flights during the GloPac project ranged from north of the Arctic Circle, over polar ice, down to Hawaii near the equator. NASA Global Hawk completed 82.5 flight hours, with one particular flight lasting 28.6 hours, eight hours of which was spent north of Alaska over the polar ice. Additionally, this was the first time a Global Hawk unmanned air vehicle has flown as far as 85 degrees north latitude. The flights were designed to address several science objectives, including validation and scientific collaboration with NASA earth observation satellite (EOS) missions, principally the Aura satellite, also built by Northrop Grumman. The GloPac payloads collected atmospheric data in the same location at the same time as Aura and other EOS missions to compare and combine results. "Global Hawk is a revolutionary aircraft for science because of its enormous range and endurance," said Paul Newman, co-mission scientist for GloPac and an atmospheric scientist from NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md. "No other science platform provides the range and time to sample rapidly evolving atmospheric phenomena. This mission is our first opportunity to demonstrate the unique capabilities of this plane, while gathering atmospheric data in a region that is poorly sampled." A Space Act Agreement between NASA Dryden Flight Research Center and Northrop Grumman established a partnership to re-fit and maintain two Global Hawk aircraft transferred from the U.S. Air Force. As part of the Northrop Grumman/NASA partnership, the company contributed to the GloPac missions by developing the GloPac mission plans; confirming aircraft performance through extensive analysis; providing pilots and training for NASA/NOAA pilots; sharing maintenance and operations support; and developing and building a new ground control station and software for aircraft operations. Additionally, under a contract from NASA, Northrop Grumman performed aircraft modification engineering and analysis for installation of the science payloads, which was funded by the science sponsors for each of the 11 sensors. "We have partnered with NASA to provide this new capability for the atmospheric science community," said Carl Johnson, Northrop Grumman vice president of advanced concepts – air and land. "The Global Hawk system has been serving the United States Air Force and Navy and is now serving mankind with critical data from the NASA and NOAA science experiments. Global Hawk is truly global in its reach." Later this year, NASA Global Hawk will examine hurricanes and their formation process. This experiment will explore the possibility of improving hurricane forecasts. The Global Hawk aircraft is proving to be the premier platform for use in high-altitude, long-duration Earth science missions. Northrop Grumman Corporation is a leading global security company whose 120,000 employees provide innovative systems, products, and solutions in aerospace, electronics, information systems, shipbuilding and technical services to government and commercial customers worldwide. Please visit www.northropgrumman.com for more information.

CONTACT:

Sherri Pineda Hargrove Northrop Grumman Aerospace Systems (858) 618-4556 Mobile: (858) 943-1152 sherri.pineda@ngc.com

DTN News: Northrop Grumman Awarded Global Hawk Sensor Suite Repair Capability Contract

DTN News: Northrop Grumman Awarded Global Hawk Sensor Suite Repair Capability Contract

*First Dedicated Repair Facility for Global Hawk Systems

Source: DTN News / Northrop Grumman Corporation

(NSI News Source Info) SAN DIEGO,- May 18, 2010: The U.S. Air Force has awarded Northrop Grumman Corporation (NYSE:NOC) a $50 million firm fixed-price/cost plus fixed -fee contract to provide the Global Hawk unmanned aircraft program with an interim repair capability for its integrated sensor suite (ISS) and the enhanced integrated sensor suite (EISS). The interim repair line, which will be separate from the current production line, will be located and operated at Raytheon Space and Airborne Systems (SAS) in El Segundo, Calif. Raytheon SAS is partnered with Northrop Grumman to provide the EISS imaging system for the Global Hawk Block 20 and 30 systems. The sensor interim repair line will be the first dedicated repair facility to be established by the U.S. Air Force for Global Hawk, and will significantly improve the availability of the critical ISS and EISS components in support of increased operations tempo. The ISS deployed on Block 10 Global Hawks demonstrated the value of the wide area, high-resolution imagery from its synthetic aperture radar and its visible and infrared electro-optical camera. The EISS will improve on the ISS capability with a more than 50% increase in range and resolution. As a result, the Air Force is predicting that combatant commanders will require Block 30 Global Hawks to fly many more hours than had been previously planned. In addition, the new interim repair capability provides an important bridge to a fully independent depot-level repair program for the Global Hawk system. "Northrop Grumman remains committed to providing the warfighter the most reliable resources to support their needs. The dedicated repair facility will further allow us to make this possible," said George Guerra, Northrop Grumman vice president of high altitude long endurance systems. Global Hawk flies autonomously at altitudes of more than 60,000 feet, above inclement weather and prevailing winds, for more than 32 hours at a time. The original advanced concept technology demonstration Global Hawks deployed overseas to the Persian Gulf less than two months after Sept. 11, 2001 with the original ISS. Since then, Block 10 Global Hawks have been flying nearly continuously, supporting combat operations in the region. The Block 30 systems, capable of carrying 50 percent more payload and providing more than twice the electrical power, will carry simultaneously both the EISS made by Raytheon plus the Advanced Signals Intelligence Payload (ASIP) made by Northrop Grumman. Block 30 aircraft are scheduled to begin operations with the U.S. Air Force at Beale Air Force Base, Calif., and at several overseas locations in Europe and the Pacific, this year. Northrop Grumman Corporation is a leading global security company whose 120,000 employees provide innovative systems, products, and solutions in aerospace, electronics, information systems, shipbuilding and technical services to government and commercial customers worldwide.

CONTACT:

Sherri Pineda Northrop Grumman Aerospace Systems (858) 618-4556 (858) 943-1152 mobile sherri.pineda@ngc.com

DTN News: Global Hawk Unmanned Reconnaissance Aircraft Makes History With First Roundtrip Flight From Northrop Grumman's Palmdale Facility

DTN News: Global Hawk Unmanned Reconnaissance Aircraft Makes History With First Roundtrip Flight From Northrop Grumman's Palmdale Facility

* Historic Flight One of Many Significant Program Milestones in Recent Months Source: DTN News / Northrop Grumman (NSI News Source Info) PALMDALE, Calif., - March 2, 2010: Northrop Grumman Corporation's (NYSE:NOC) RQ-4 Global Hawk unmanned aircraft system (UAS) made aviation history Feb. 2 when it successfully completed its first roundtrip flight from the company's Palmdale, Calif., manufacturing facility. AF-20, a Block 30 Global Hawk built for the U.S. Air Force, performed the historic mission, soaring at altitudes of 58,300 feet for approximately four hours and 18 minutes. Photos accompanying this release are available at http://media.globenewswire.com/noc/mediagallery.html?pkgid=7162. "This was the first time ever that the same Global Hawk has taken off and landed in a single mission from Palmdale, heralding a new era of flights in and out of the facility," said George Guerra, Northrop Grumman vice president of High-Altitude, Long-Endurance systems. "It's also a huge leap forward for the site as we achieve full production acceptance activities and direct deliveries to the aircraft's main operating base at Beale Air Force Base, Calif." AF-20 is the eighth consecutive production Global Hawk to complete its operational check flight on the first attempt. The mission also marked the first time the sixth Air Force mission control element and a King Air chase aircraft were utilized. Prior to this flight, two Global Hawks, AF-12 and AF-16, simultaneously flew historic missions on Dec. 14, 2009. AF-12, one of two Block 20 aircraft to be modified with the Battlefield Airborne Communications Node (BACN) Joint Urgent Operation Need (JUON) system payload, became the first UAS to land at Palmdale. At the same time, the AF-16 aircraft, which will be equipped with an airborne signals intelligence payload, became the first Block 30 to fly out of Beale Air Force Base, where it is currently being used for training and for initial operational test and evaluation later this year. Part of the Air Force's Objective Gateway program, BACN is an airborne gateway and communications relay system that enables warfighters to rapidly share data and information gathered by multiple users across multiple dissimilar systems present within the battlefield," said Guerra. "It is the top urgent operational need requested by field commanders and scheduled for deployment by the end of this year." AF-16 was first delivered to Beale Air Force Base on Nov. 24, 2009, after completing months of development flight tests at Edwards Air Force Base, Calif., and receiving a military airworthiness certification from the Air Force. Since then, two additional Block 30 aircraft have been delivered to Beale Air Force Base, with all three planned for deployment later this year in support of overseas contingency operations. To date, 21 production Global Hawks have been delivered to the Air Force and other customers. "Logging more than 30,000 combat hours since its first deployment nine years ago, Global Hawk is a highly sought after intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance system in theater," said Steve Amburgey, Global Hawk program director for the 303d Aeronautical Systems Group at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio. "Demonstrating its versatility and persistence, it was recently used for disaster relief support in Haiti where it provided more than 3,600 images of affected areas." Northrop Grumman Corporation is the prime contractor on both the Global Hawk and BACN programs. The principal Global Hawk industry team includes: Aurora Flight Sciences, Bridgeport, West Va. (V-tail assembly and other composite structures); L-3 Communications, Salt Lake City (communication system); Raytheon Company, Waltham, Mass. (ground station); Rolls-Royce Corporation, Indianapolis (engine); and Vought Aircraft Industries, Dallas (wing). For more information on the RQ-4 Global Hawk UAS, please visit: www.supportglobalhawk.com. Northrop Grumman Corporation is a leading global security company whose 120,000 employees provide innovative systems, products, and solutions in aerospace, electronics, information systems, shipbuilding and technical services to government and commercial customers worldwide.

DTN News: NASA Global Hawk Continues Flight Expansion In Preparation For Environmental Research Missions As Part Of The 2010 GloPac Campaign

DTN News: NASA Global Hawk Continues Flight Expansion In Preparation For Environmental Research Missions As Part Of The 2010 GloPac Campaign *Source: DTN News / Northrop Grumman (NSI News Source Info) SAN DIEGO, - January 20, 2010: Northrop Grumman (NYSE:NOC) announced on Jan 18., that the NASA Global Hawk unmanned aircraft system (UAS) has completed 10.4 hours for pilot training and flight characterization in preparation for the Global Hawk Pacific (GloPac) Campaign set to start this spring. Five flawless flights have been completed since the first flight of Air Vehicle Six (AV-6) on 23 October. Prior to this, the aircraft had not flown in more than 6 1/2 years. Currently, AV-6 is being modified to carry eleven different earth science sensors in preparation for the GloPac Campaign. Missions will be based from NASA’s Dryden Flight Research Center at Edwards Air Force Base and be conducted over remote areas of the Pacific and Arctic. Initial flights to test these sensors will begin in March. AV-6 is one of two Advanced Concept Technology Demonstration Global Hawk aircraft that were transferred from the U.S. Air Force to NASA Dryden. Both are being operated under the Space Act Agreement signed in 2008 that allows NASA and Northrop Grumman to share the aircraft for various operations. NOAA is also partnered with NASA to provide appropriate payloads for environmental science missions. The second aircraft, AV-1, is being readied for flight later this year. As part of the program, Northrop Grumman designed a new UAS mission control center that is married to a payload station and housed in the Global Hawk Operations Center (GHOC) located at Edwards Air Force Base. A distributed set of workstations are configured with specific functionality to initiate, monitor and track aircraft operations, as well as to collect and distribute data from various onboard sensors. The payload workstations are configured to manage numerous scientific payloads simultaneously which will be vital during the GloPac Campaign. The GloPac Campaign provides a unique opportunity to extend operator evaluation of the control system, which is at the heart of the GHOC. Analyzing the multi-function architecture during operations will further the understanding and development of mission management and control systems for various heterogeneous UAS. Lessons learned on training and mission execution will be considered for inclusion in future programs where government customers are looking for interoperability and commonality to meet mission management requirements. Northrop Grumman Corporation is a leading global security company whose 120,000 employees provide innovative systems, products, and solutions in aerospace, electronics, information systems, shipbuilding and technical services to government and commercial customers worldwide.

DTN News: Global Hawk Collects Reconnaissance Data During Haiti Relief Efforts

DTN News: Global Hawk Collects Reconnaissance Data During Haiti Relief Efforts *Source: By Master Sgt. Russell P. Petcoff Secretary of the Air Force Public Affairs (NSI News Source Info) WASHINGTON - January 16, 2010: A Q-4 Global Hawk is providing imagery to determine the extent of damage to earthquake-stricken Haiti and usability of its infrastructure, an Air Force official said during a Department of Defense Bloggers Roundtable Jan. 15. "A lot of images of destroyed buildings," said Col. Bradley G. Butz, the 480th Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance Wing vice commander. They are looking at images of airports to find airfields to land aircraft, he added. The image quality and clarity is good enough whether or not an airfield can accept aircraft. "We've got pretty good coverage of the entire country of Haiti," Colonel Butz said. The Global Hawk is a high-altitude, long-endurance unmanned aircraft with an integrated sensor suite that provides worldwide ISR capability. The 480th ISR, based at Langley Air Force Base, Va., is providing its images to U.S. Southern Command officials for use by whomever needs the images, Colonel Butz said. The objective is mass distribution to people and organizations that need the images to support relief and recovery operations. These images can help determine the level of destruction since aerial images of Haiti exist from June 2009. Comparing the June 2009 and the January 2010 can give an indication of the extent of the disaster. Without context "we just don't know the impact," the colonel said. In addition, the Global Hawk provides assistance to Soldiers of the 82nd Airborne Division who are deploying to Haiti. The Global Hawk is providing images of where the Soldiers are deploying to help them prepare for their mission, Colonel Butz said. In role and design, the Global Hawk is similar to the Lockheed U-2, the venerable 1950s spy plane. It is a theater commander's asset to both provide a broad overview and systematically target surveillance shortfalls. The Global Hawk air vehicle is able to provide high resolution Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR)—that can penetrate cloud-cover and sandstorms—and Electro-Optical/Infrared (EO/IR) imagery at long range with long loiter times over target areas. It can survey as much as 40,000 square miles (100,000 square kilometers) of terrain a day. Potential missions for the Global Hawk cover the spectrum of intelligence collection capability to support forces in worldwide peace, crisis, and wartime operations. According to the Air Force, the capabilities of the aircraft will allow more precise targeting of weapons and better protection of forces through superior surveillance capabilities. The "R" is the Department of Defense designation for reconnaissance; "Q" means unmanned aircraft system. The "4" refers to it being the fourth of a series of purpose-built unmanned aircraft systems. The Global Hawk costs about $35 million USD (actual per-aircraft costs; with development costs also included, the per-aircraft cost rises to $123.2 million USD each). The Global Hawk flew 14 hours Jan. 14, providing between 400 to 700 images, the colonel said. It is flying daily out of Naval Air Station Patuxent River, Md. The colonel said the Global Hawk will continue providing Haitian overflight support as long as the president requests. This is the first use of the Global Hawk in a disaster relief mission in the Caribbean, according to the colonel.

DTN News: NASA, Northrop Grumman Announce Initial Flight Of Global Hawk Unmanned System For Environmental Science Research

DTN News: NASA, Northrop Grumman Announce Initial Flight Of Global Hawk Unmanned System For Environmental Science Research *Source: DTN News / Northrop Grumman

(NSI News Source Info) EDWARDS AIR FORCE BASE, Calif., - October 24, 2009: NASA and Northrop Grumman Corporation (NYSE:NOC) today announced the initial flight of a Global Hawk unmanned aircraft system (UAS) to be used for environmental science research.

With the sun rising at its back, one of NASA's Global Hawks prepares for a taxi test on the runways of Edwards Air Force Base, Calif. The autonomously operated aircraft are managed by NASA's Dryden Flight Research Center.

Photos are available at http://www.nasa.gov/centers/dryden/multimedia/imagegallery/Global_Hawk/index.html NASA's Dryden Flight Research Center and Northrop Grumman are returning NASA's two Global Hawk aircraft to flight under a Space Act Agreement signed in 2008. The two aircraft were among the seven Global Hawk vehicles built and flown in the original Advanced Concept Technology Demonstration program sponsored by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency. The aircraft that flew today last took to the skies in May 2003. Today's approximately four-hour flight at NASA Dryden included checkout of aircraft systems, including engine, flight controls and communication. The flight also included demonstration of key features of a new ground control segment that introduces Northrop Grumman's common mission management system architecture. This architecture could serve as the baseline for efforts to support the U.S. Department of Defense common ground station initiative and future unmanned systems. The first Earth science mission will be the joint NASA-NOAA Global Hawk Pacific, or GloPac. This campaign will consist of six long-duration missions over the Pacific and Arctic regions scheduled to begin in early 2010. Eleven NASA and NOAA scientific instruments integrated into one of NASA's Global Hawk aircraft will collect atmospheric data while flying through the upper troposphere and lower stratosphere. The primary science objective of the mission is to perform calibration of instruments and validation of data from the AURA satellite, one of NASA's 15 science satellites currently observing the Earth. "This is the future," said Paul Newman, project scientist for the GloPac mission at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center. "We are taking the first steps into making scientific measurements with an unmanned system -- a hybrid of a satellite and an aircraft." "Northrop Grumman looks forward to the first GloPac flight, which will herald yet another application of Global Hawk's remarkable capabilities," said Corey Moore, vice president of Advanced Concepts-Air and Land Systems for Northrop Grumman's Aerospace Systems sector. "In addition to its support of the U.S. Air Force in the war against terrorism, Global Hawk has been used to help monitor wildfires in California and for hurricane relief efforts along the Gulf Coast." The two NASA Global Hawk aircraft were transferred to NASA Dryden by the U.S. Air Force in 2007. NASA announced plans to use them for missions supporting its Science Mission Directorate and the Earth science community that require high-altitude, long-endurance, long-distance airborne capability. Northrop Grumman will share in use of the aircraft to conduct its own flight demonstrations for expanded markets, missions and airborne capabilities, including UAS integration into national airspace. Global Hawk can fly at altitudes up to more than 60,000 feet for more than 30 hours at a time. In support of the Air Force, the system provides persistent intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance to warfighters. To date, Global Hawks have flown more than 33,000 hours. Global Hawk also has many potential applications for the advancement of science, improvement of hurricane monitoring techniques, development of disaster support capabilities, and development of advanced UAS technologies. Northrop Grumman Corporation is a leading global security company whose 120,000 employees provide innovative systems, products, and solutions in aerospace, electronics, information systems, shipbuilding and technical services to government and commercial customers worldwide.

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DTN News: Italy To Fly New Predator B's Over Mediterranean

DTN News: Italy To Fly New Predator B's Over Mediterranean

*Sources: Defense Media (NSI News Source Info) PARIS, France - June 17, 2009: Italy expects to freely fly new Predator B's it will obtain by year end over the Mediterranean, albeit within Italian airspace, a senior official has said. In August 2005, a version of Predator B, called Sky Warrior, was chosen for the four-year system development and demonstration (SDD) phase of the US Army's extended range / multi-purpose (ER/MP) UAV programme – 11 Sky Warrior systems, each with 12 air vehicles and five ground control stations. Initial operating capability is planned for 2009. Two block 0 Sky Warrior UAVs were deployed to Iraq in April 2008. Also in August 2005, the US Department of Homeland Security / Customs and Border Protection (DHS/CBP) ordered two Predator B systems for monitoring of the USA's south-west border. The first was delivered in late 2005, the second in September 2006. Two further systems were ordered in October 2006, for monitoring operations on the border with Canada. In September 2006, the UK requested the foreign military sale (FMS) of two MQ-9 Reaper systems with Lynx SAR, multi-spectral targeting systems and one ground station. Deliveries began in mid-2007 and the RAF deployed the system in Afghanistan in November 2007. In January 2008, the UK requested the sale of an additional ten MQ-9 systems. In August 2008, Italy requested the sale of four MQ-9 Reaper systems with three ground stations. "Since the B's will fly at 50,000 feet, above regular traffic, it means they can go everywhere at sea at that altitude," said Italian Air Force deputy chief of staff Gen. Giuseppe Bernardis. Italy expects to start taking delivery by year's end of four unarmed Predator B's, which will be based at the Italian Air Force's Amendola base in southern Italy, already home to Italy's Predator As. Italy already has carved out a flight corridor for Predator A flights over sea that links coastal Amendola with Salto di Quirra test range in Sardinia. Bernardis said plans were underway to create a series of new "feeder corridors" linking the main corridor to bases at Sigonella and Trapani in Sicily, the Italian island of Pantelleria and Decimomannu in Sardinia. Bernardis said the A's would stick to the corridors, but once at 50,000 feet, the Predator B's will be able to cross airspace between corridors. The pending corridor linking Sigonella could also be used by Global Hawks, which are set to be based there under the NATO Allied Ground Surveillance program, Bernardis added. The Italian Air Force is, meanwhile, set to obtain two new upgraded Predator A's to join the four it already flies. The new UAVs will have a larger wingspan and laser targeting. One of Italy's four existing A's also is being upgraded to the standard of the new deliveries. The three upgrade standard A's will undergo training flights in Italy this summer before being deployed to Afghanistan by year end, Bernardis said. The three Predator A's now flying in Afghanistan will then be withdrawn and upgraded.

Boeing Completes Critical Design Review For FAB-T Software-Defined Radio

Boeing Completes Critical Design Review For FAB-T Software-Defined Radio

(NSI News Source Info) February 8, 2009: The U.S. Air Force is installing a high-speed satellite communications terminal in its heavy bombers. This FAB-T (Family of Advanced Beyond Line-of-Sight Terminals) enables the aircraft to communicate at broadband Internet rates (8 megabits a second). The FAB-T can also communicate with other ground and airborne radios that can share data files (video, pictures, audio). The point of all this is to enable aircraft to share all useful data with nearby aircraft and ground troops, and enable the bomber to drop its smart bombs faster and more accurately. Speed is often critical, as ground targets are frequently enemy gunmen or vehicles, who can quickly move. Since FAB-T can also handle highly encrypted messages, which makes it is useful for messages to and from bombers carrying nuclear weapons. The U.S. Air Force is again interested in the nuclear weapons capabilities of its 162 heavy bombers (19 B-2s, 67 B-1s and 76 B-52s). Unlike ballistic missiles, heavy bombers carrying nukes can be recalled or switch targets at the last minute. But you want those messages to be heavily encrypted, and FAB-T can handle that.

The Boeing Company has successfully completed the systemwide Critical Design Review (CDR) for its Family of Advanced Beyond line-of-sight Terminals (FAB-T) satellite communications program, paving the way for implementation of a new data capability. The CDR, which was conducted Oct. 28-30 for senior military, government and industry officials, demonstrated that the program's requirements are well defined and understood, as required in the FAB-T contract managed by the U.S. Air Force. The Boeing Terminal Test team established log on, downlink, and uplink connections with a Milstar 6 satellite -- a first step toward implementing Advanced Extremely High Frequency (AEHF) satellite Extended Data Rate (XDR) capability. "Our design solution and program management have been validated as we've successfully executed this contract and completed this systemwide design review," said Jim Dodd, FAB-T program director for Boeing. "Formal qualification testing will further validate the terminals' interoperability and satellite interfaces." The FAB-T system includes software-defined radios, antennas and user-interface hardware that will enable the government to host numerous waveforms that accommodate data rates in excess of 300 megabits per second. Once operational, FAB-T will provide critical, secure beyond line-of-sight communications capability for warfighters via several satellites that support military forces. Boeing expects to begin deliveries of engineering development modules to the Air Force this year for FAB-T Increment 1, which incorporates airborne operational requirements for the Milstar and AEHF satellite systems. These units will be deployed to the various airborne users for integration with onboard mission systems. Flight testing of these modules is currently planned for mid-2009. FAB-T Increment 1 is a key enabler of network-centric communications. It will provide strategic forces with a multi-mission-capable family of software-defined radios that use common open system architecture to link to different satellites and enable information exchange between ground, air and space platforms. FAB-T represents a key building block in Boeing's vision of the integrated battlespace of the future, where networked information and communications systems provide a competitive edge to decision-makers and military personnel. In the next phase, Increment 2, Boeing will develop terminals to support Wideband Global SATCOM satellite operations on surveillance aircraft such as Global Hawk, with other platforms expected to follow.