The worldwide fleet of Global Hawk unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) has achieved 100,000 flight hours, Northrop Grumman said Monday.
(Global Hawk Block 30 UAS. Photo, courtesy of Northrop Grumman.)
The Global Hawk, flown by the U.S. Air Force, U.S. Navy and NASA to name a few, provides military radar detection, airborne communications and information sharing for military units. It first entered service in 1998 and has the ability to fly for more than 30 hours.
“Global Hawk has been used continuously by the Air Force since that time. The system has also supported disaster response efforts, science studies conducted by NASA and is the foundation of our new HALE Enterprise,” said George Guerra, vice president of Northrop’s Global Hawk division.
The U.S. Air Force accounted for 88 percent of the logged flight hours, with the remaining portion flown by NASA, the U.S. Navy and Germany with the Euro Hawk.
Related: Unmanned Systems News