The payload is targeted for integration on Global Hawk for a series of flight evaluations for the German Ministry of Defence scheduled for late fall at Edwards Air Force Base, Calif., and next year in northern Germany.

"We conducted payload integration tests in the spring and early summer at our Global Hawk system integration center in San Diego," said Gene Ostermann, Northrop Grumman program manager for the planned German evaluation. "The successful laboratory test series moves us one step closer to integrating the payload on Global Hawk in advance of the flight evaluations."

"We are proud of this first step, which proves our capability to develop within a very short period of time a new ELINT system fulfilling specific requirements for standoff reconnaissance installed on a high-flying unmanned air vehicle," stated Karl-Friedrich Weitzel, EADS EURO HAWK senior manager.

EADS and Northrop Grumman are working together on a system concept called EURO HAWK, a standoff surveillance system based on Global Hawk and the needs of the German and other potential European NATO customers. The flight evaluations in Germany pave the way towards a replacement system offered by EADS and Northrop Grumman for the aging Breguet Atlantic SIGINT currently operated in Germany.

Global Hawk is a high-altitude, unmanned aerial reconnaissance system that operates autonomously from takeoff to landing. Flying at an altitude of 65,000 feet and with an endurance of more than 30 hours, the Global Hawk provides intelligence, reconnaissance and surveillance information to the warfighter in near real-time. Northrop Grumman is prime contractor for the U.S. Air Force program.

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