The U.S. Air Force and Northrop Grumman have displayed a new generation of the company's unmanned reconnaissance aircraft.
Officials unveiled the RQ-4 Block 40 Global Hawk last week in California. The craft is the latest in a series of unmanned aerial vehicles from Northrop Grumman. The company said its previous entries in the series have approximately 24,000 hours in support of troops in combat situations. The craft is to begin flight testing next month.
"Carrying an advanced, all-weather multi-platform radar technology insertion program sensor, the Block 40 aircraft will provide game-changing situational awareness for our warfighters with its unprecedented capability to detect, track and identify stationary and moving targets," Duke Dufresne, a Northrop Grumman vice president, said in a release.
The sensor installation on the Block 40 Global Hawks allows the UAVs to operate day or night and in any weather with radar mapping and ground moving target indicator capabilities, the company said.
Northrop Grumman is touting the Global Hawk as an aircraft that has civilian applications as well as military uses.
"Our current and future customers are interested in Global Hawk as an ideal national security asset because it can be easily adapted to perform a wide array of military roles including the fight against piracy as well as a civilian role, such as response to natural disasters, bushfires, environmental monitoring, and drug interdiction," George Guerra, another Northrop vice president, said.
While the U.S. Air Force was helping with the unveiling of the Global Hawk Block 40, Northrop Chief Executive Officer Ronald Sugar told Bloomberg News during the recent Paris Air Show that there has been "high level" interest from countries including Japan, Singapore and South Korea.
Seoul is known to be looking to increase its intelligence-gathering capabilities in light of recent North Korean military testing and tough rhetoric.
The Teal Group, a Virginia aviation consultant, said on its Web site that worldwide spending on UAVs will nearly double to $8.7 billion over the next 10 years. It also pointed out Northrop Grumman's "strong position" in regard to larger craft such as the Global Hawk.
The Teal Group said U.S. concerns will account for about 60 percent of procurement expenditures over that timeframe.
Northrop Grumman is the prime contractor for the Global Hawk program. Other companies involved include Aurora Flight Sciences, L-3 Communications, Raytheon Co., Rolls-Royce Corp. and Vought Aircraft Industries.
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