Mary-Louise Hoffman
A Northrop Grumman RQ-4 Global Hawk unmanned aerial system underwent a flight test designed to evaluate the drone’s ability to connect with the U.S. Air Force‘s distributed common ground system.
The RQ-4 performed more than 30 hours of endurance flight during recent interoperability assessments held at Edwards Air Force Base in California, Northrop said Tuesday.
According to Northrop, the UAV’s data collection technology was also evaluated in July as part of the NATO‘s Alliance Ground Surveillance program.
“The flights demonstrated Northrop Grumman’s latest software development in anticipation of initial operational test and evaluation [IOT&E] in 2015,” said Mick Jaggers, Northrop manager for the Global Hawk program.
RQ-4 is built with the Multi-Platform Radar Technology Insertion Program sensor designed for identifying both moving and fixed targets.
During a recent mission, the drone soared from the North Pacific coast to the Mexican Gulf’s Eastern edge and gathered data through several intelligence centers.
