Necessary Step For Flight Within The U.S.

Northrop Grumman Corporation says the U.S. Air Force has granted the RQ-4 Global Hawk high-altitude, long-endurance (HALE) unmanned aircraft system (UAS) a military Airworthiness Certification (AWC), a significant milestone in the life of the aircraft system and a step on the path to routine unmanned flight within the United States.

The AWC process verifies an aircraft design has met performance requirements within the mission profile to safely fly in national airspace and assures operators and mission managers that the production articles conform to the design. In granting the certification to RQ-4, the next generation of Block 20 and 30 Global Hawk UAS, the U.S. Air Force has recognized the aircraft's ability to routinely fly safely within design parameters. The certification process evaluated more than 600 airworthiness criteria.

"This was a more rigorous and more complete evaluation than that of any other unmanned system," said George Guerra, vice president of HALE systems for Northrop Grumman. "With this historic accomplishment and more than 35,000 total flight hours, most of that time in combat support over the skies of Iraq and Afghanistan, Global Hawk continues to be a trailblazer in UAS certifications and a pathfinder supporting our men and women overseas in combat."

Just as commercial aircraft are certified by the FAA, military aircraft are evaluated against certain criteria including durability, capability to adjust to sudden changes in aerodynamic forces, and redundancies of systems and subsystems. Without this Air Force certification, the FAA cannot grant permission to fly within the United States, which is the next step in the on-going process to accept the routine flight of unmanned aircraft in the national airspace.

"This certification resulted from a large collaborative effort between the government and the contractor, agreeing on standards and verification methods and ultimately coming together on the assessment of the system. With its Advanced Concept Technology Demonstration legacy design and early push to support Overseas Contingency Operations and U-2 retirement, this was the first comprehensive assessment of the aircraft to ensure it is ready to fly in national airspace and ready for the user to train with at Beale AFB," said Yvette Weber, chief engineer at the 303d Aeronautical Systems Group at Wright Patterson AFB in Dayton, Ohio.

Meanwhile, the U.S. Air Force has awarded Northrop Grumman a $302.9 million fixed price incentive fee contract for five of the RQ-4 systems. Under the Lot 7 production contract, the company will build two Block 30 systems and three Block 40 systems for the 303d Aeronautical Systems Group at Wright Patterson AFB in Dayton, Ohio.

The award also includes a ground station consisting of a launch and recovery element and a mission control element, plus two additional sensor suites that will be retrofitted into previous production aircraft. The contract runs through 2011.

The company will deliver in 2010 the two Block 30 aircraft equipped with the Enhanced Integrated Sensor Suite (EISS) that provides electro-optical/infrared and synthetic aperture radar imaging capabilities. These aircraft will also be retrofitted to incorporate the production Airborne Signals Intelligence Payload. The Lot 7 contract also includes the first production Multi-Platform Radar Technology Insertion Program payloads, which will be contractually awarded later this year. The company will also deliver two EISS suites for use on aircraft delivered earlier.

FMI: www.northropgrumman.com