Global Hawk UAV – RQ-4A Block 20 Global Hawk Aircraft

The Global Hawk is a High Altitude Long Endurance (HALE) recconnasaince aircraft UAV, and the most capable one in the world according to many experts. The newest rollout of the Global Hawk is the Block 20, which is the 17th Global Hawk to be designed. The Global Hawk has logged thousands of flight hours; bringing the United States Military incredible information and High-Res imagery. According to Northrop Grumman:

Although this represented only 3 percent of all the air-based image collection missions flown during the war, Global Hawk generated approximately 55 percent of all time-critical data on air defense targets. The sole Global Hawk in theater located at least 13 surface-to-air missile batteries, 50 SAM launchers, 300 canisters and 70 missile transporters; it also imaged 300 tanks, 38 percent of Iraq’s armored force – a remarkable display of the vehicle’s capability

Raytheon Space & Airborne Systems supplies the Global Hawk Integrated Sensor Suite (ISS) which includes Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR), electro-optical, and infrared sensors. The Global Hawk’s Sythetic Aperture Radar (SAR) can penetrate cloud cover, and even sandstorms. All of the advanced avionics systems can operate simultaneously with one another giving the Global Hawk the ability to find SAM’s, tanks, and a variety of other military equipment. The Global Hawk UAV can survey for up to 40,000 square miles a day! This UAV can stay in the air for up to 42 hourse with a nautical range of 14,000 miles. In fact, the Global Hawk was the first pilotless or unmanned aerial vehicle to cross the Pacific Ocean in 2001.

The Raytheon ground station receives the high resolution images taken by the UAV sensor suite. The ground station forwards the images to the military commanders and soldiers in the field.

Specifications of the Global Hawk Block 20 / Block 30