Global Hawk Racks up More Than 100,000 flight hours

Photo Courtesy of Northrop Grumman

By: Ashley Addington



Northrop Grumman says its high-flying unmanned aircraft, led by the Global Hawk, have hit the 100,000 flight hour mark.



More than 88 percent of the flight hours logged was by the U.S. Air Force Global Hawk system, with the rest by Global Hawk variants including the Euro Hawk, the Navy’s Broad Area Maritime Surveillance demonstrator and the new Triton.



 The Global Hawk is mainly used by the military and is equipped with a variety of ISR sensor payloads that allow military personnel to have real-time imagery and radar to detect objects on the ground.  



“Global Hawk flew for the first time in 1998 and was used by the Air Force for surveillance missions over Afghanistan just three years later,” said George Guerra, Northrop Grumman’s vice president for Global Hawk UAS, in a press release. “Global Hawk has been used continuously by the Air Force since that time. The system has also supported disaster response efforts, science studies conducted by NASA and is the foundation of our new HALE Enterprise.”  



The system has also flown over earthquake areas in Haiti and Japan to help with disaster assistance and over wildfires in Southern California. NASA flies two of the early aircraft to help study hurricanes. The Global Hawk can fly up to 30 hours at one time and can fly half the circumference of the world without having to refuel, making it a valuable tool for ISR missions.  



“The 100,000-hour milestone is a tribute to a great team that has supported combat operations for more than a decade,” said Col. Carlin Heimann, Global Hawk system program director for the U.S. Air Force.