Northrop Grumman’s Global Hawk Sets New Record for Mission Hours

Photo courtesy Northrop Grumman

 By Priya Potapragada



Northrop Grumman Corp.’s high-altitude, long-endurance unmanned aircraft system, U.S. Air Force RQ-4 Global Hawk, set a new record for mission flight hours logging 665 hours for operational and exercise missions during the week of Feb. 23. 



The HALE UAS series have totaled more than 110,000 flight hours performing global missions. More than 87 percent of the missions were associated with the Air Force and also included the U.S. Navy, NASA and other customers. 



“Global Hawk is in operation today, setting performance records that are benefitting customers around the world,” said Mick Jaggers, Global Hawk UAS program director, Northrop Grumman Aerospace Systems. “Effective, cost-efficient intelligence is in demand, and our teams deliver this to the Air Force, Navy, NASA and other customers every day.”



Global Hawk flew an average of 433.8 hours in a week in 2013 and with the new record, the hours average 53 percent above last year’s. The Global Hawk’s increasing flight hours along with stable support costs are driving down flight hour costs. Global Hawk cost per hour was down almost 30 percent in 2013 compared to 2012 in a report by the Air Force and the cost continues to drop. The Air Force has 32 Global Hawks in service around the world.