RQ-4A Global Hawk High Altitude UAV

High altitude endurance unmanned aerial vehicle.

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Description

The RQ-4A Global Hawk long range High Altitude Endurance (MAE) UAV took its first flight in March of 1998 as a Advanced Concept Technology Demonstration proof of concept platform. As with the Predator medium altitude UAV, the Global Hawk UAV is capable of high altitude surveillance and reconnaissance over a greatly extended period and ranges.

The Global Hawk's electro-optical/Infrared cameras and synthetic aperture array radar give it a complete day/night all weather surveillance capability. From an altitude of 65,000 feet the SAR can generate a 10km wide strip map at one meter of resolution, and a 2x2 km spot map at one foot resolution. In Ground Moving Target Indicator (GMTI) mode, the Global Hawk is capable of detecting ground targets moving as slow as 4.5 miles per hour. The Global Hawk is capable of mapping up to 40,000 square nautical m per day and up to 1900 individual spot maps.

Description: The Global Hawk air vehicle is a single wing, single engine platform. The fuselage is slender, except for the bulbous nose which houses the 48-inch Ku-band wideband satellite communications antenna. The single wing is centrally mounted low on the body and is of a high aspect ratio design. There are two hardpoints, one on each wing, capable of supporting 1,000lb pods. The powerplant is an Allison AE 3007H turbofan and is mounted on top of the aircraft tail section. The two rear "tailerons" are mounted on top of the airframe in an "V" configuration just aft of the engine.