The Air Force has received Defense Department approval to update its fleet of RQ-4 Global Hawk unmanned aircraft, prime contractor Northrop Grumman [NOC] announced May 5.
The Milestone C decision allows the Air Force to proceed with various modernization activities included in its fiscal year 2016 budget request, said John VanBrabant, Northrop Grumman business development director for high-altitude, long-endurance systems. For the Block 30 variant, for instance, those activities include “mission planning development and testing, enhanced weather capability development and testing, airspace and interoperability enhancements and updates, airframe upgrades, sensor upgrades, risk reduction and integration, ice protection system development and testing, and resolution of issues with diminishing manufacturing sources,” according to budget documents.
Photo: Northrop Grumman
Northrop Grumman has delivered 18 operational Block 30s to the Air Force and is under contract to build three more, with the final one slated for delivery in 2017.
The Block 30, which collects imagery and signals intelligence, was once slated for early retirement, as the Air Force had said its aging but upgraded manned U-2 aircraft could do a better job at less cost. But the plan met resistance from Congress, and the Air Force now intends to keep and upgrade the Block 30 and begin retiring the U-2 in fiscal year 2019. The U-2 retirement “can be mitigated with upgrades to the RQ-4 over the next five to 10 years and by utilizing the larger [intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance] capability portfolio,” Air Force officials testified in a joint statement to a House Armed Services subcommittee in March.
Meanwhile, the Air Force’s new RQ-4 Block 40 variant is expected to begin operational testing later this year, VanBrabant said. The Block 40 is equipped with the Multi-Platform Radar Technology Insertion Program (MP-RTIP) ground surveillance radar to monitor both moving and stationary targets.
In addition to the Block 30 and Block 40 Global Hawks, the Air Force continues to fly three Block 20 communications-relay aircraft.