US Navy's First Global Hawk UAV Arrives

Posted on: Mar. 29th, 2006 || Source: military.com | E-mail Article | Print Article

The U.S. Navy's first Global Hawk unmanned air system (UAS), N-1, an RQ-4A (BuNo 166509), arrived today at its new home at Naval Air Station, Patuxent River, Maryland. The vehicle is one of two RQ-4A aircraft which the Navy has acquired through the Global Hawk Maritime Demonstration (GHMD) Program under the management of the Navy's UAS program office, PMA-263.

The GHMD N-1 aircraft, operated by test squadron VX-20, with support from a Navy-contractor integrated product team, will help develop Navy concepts of operations, and tactics, techniques, and procedures to support integration of a persistent unmanned Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance (ISR) capability into the Fleet. The GHMD program's Global Hawk represents the largest and most advanced unmanned system in the American military.

With the arrival at Patuxent River, the GHMD team will first complete local area system checkout and training. Then workups begin right away in preparation for the Joint Expeditionary Force Experiment (JEFX) set for April 2006. JEFX 06 is an Air Force Chief of Staff directed series of experiments that combines live, virtual, and constructive air, space, and ground force simulations. Operated from NAS Patuxent River for this upcoming experiment, GHMD N-1 will demonstrate the utility of a high altitude, long endurance UAS equipped with sensors to collect and share persistent maritime ISR data and enhance maritime domain awareness for U.S. Northern Command and other federal agencies.

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