The modified aircraft, designated RQ-4B Block 20, can carry up to 3,000 lb (1,360 kg) of internal payload. To increase the aircraft's capabilities, the airframe was redesigned, with the nose section and wings being stretched. The final Block 10 aircraft was delivered on 26 June 2006. Nine production Block 10 aircraft, sometimes referred to as RQ-4A, were produced of these, two were sold to the US Navy and an additional two were deployed to Iraq to support operations there. In an unusual move, the aircraft entered initial low-rate production while still in engineering and manufacturing development. Demand for the RQ-4's abilities was high in the Middle East thus, the prototype aircraft were actively operated by the USAF in the War in Afghanistan. The first seven aircraft were built under the Advanced Concept Technology Demonstration (ACTD) program, sponsored by DARPA, in order to evaluate the design and demonstrate its capabilities. The Global Hawk took its first flight on 28 February 1998. It was decided to proceed with the Global Hawk for its range and payload rather than go with the stealth Dark Star. Due to budget cuts, only one of the programs could survive. One of them was the stealthy Lockheed Martin RQ-3 Dark Star, another one was the Global Hawk. In the 1990s, the Air Force was developing uncrewed aerial intelligence platforms. This section needs expansion with: development, context, and history of the design this article is focused almost entirely on events after 2006–2008. Air Force plans to retire its Global Hawks in 2027. Navy has developed the Global Hawk into the MQ-4C Triton maritime surveillance platform. By 2001, this had risen to US$60.9 million, and then to $131.4 million (flyaway cost) in 2013. The initial flyaway cost of each of the first 10 aircraft was US$10 million in 1994. According to the USAF, the superior surveillance capabilities of the aircraft allow more precise weapons targeting and better protection of friendly forces.Ĭost overruns led to the original plan to acquire 63 aircraft being cut to 45, and to a 2013 proposal to mothball the 21 Block 30 signals intelligence variants. It is used as a high-altitude long endurance (HALE) platform covering the spectrum of intelligence collection capability to support forces in worldwide military operations. The Global Hawk is operated by the United States Air Force (USAF). It can survey as much as 40,000 square miles (100,000 km 2) of terrain per day, an area the size of South Korea or Iceland. The RQ-4 provides a broad overview and systematic surveillance using high-resolution synthetic aperture radar (SAR) and electro-optical/infrared (EO/IR) sensors with long loiter times over target areas. It was initially designed by Ryan Aeronautical (now part of Northrop Grumman), and known as Tier II+ during development.
The Northrop Grumman RQ-4 Global Hawk is a high-altitude, remotely-piloted surveillance aircraft of the 1990s–2020s.