Once targeted, Global Hawk drone now hidden weapon in U.S. airstrikes

[unhappycamper]

http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2014/09/29/241388/once-targeted-global-hawk-drone.html?sp=/99/200/111/



Once targeted, Global Hawk drone now hidden weapon in U.S. airstrikes
By Greg Gordon
McClatchy Washington Bureau
September 29, 2014

WASHINGTON — The squabbling between the Pentagon and Capitol Hill over whether to kill the biggest of the military’s drones – the Global Hawk – is finished for the moment, with the remotely piloted surveillance aircraft and its builder emerging as the victors.

Now there’s every indication that the rise of the Islamic State has offered the pilotless wonder a chance to show its stuff.

If only its intelligence, reconnaissance and surveillance activities, conducted from as high as 11 miles off the ground and on flights of up to 32 hours, weren’t classified. Pentagon officials are tight-lipped about the drone’s role in recent U.S. airstrikes in Iraq and Syria.

But one piece of data offers a telling indicator that the Air Force’s fleet of 32 Global Hawks has been helping to pinpoint Islamic State targets: During the week of Sept. 10-16, just days before the first missiles and bombs exploded in Syria, the drone fleet set a record with over 700 flight hours, more than 60 percent above the weekly average in 2013. It also has been deployed over Afghanistan.

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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Global_Hawk

The Northrop Grumman RQ-4 Global Hawk is an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) surveillance aircraft. It was initially designed by Ryan Aeronautical (now part of Northrop Grumman), and known as Tier II+ during development. In role and operational design, the Global Hawk is similar to the Lockheed U-2. The RQ-4 provides a broad overview and systematic surveillance using high resolution synthetic aperture radar (SAR) and long-range electro-optical/infrared (EO/IR) sensors with long loiter times over target areas. It can survey as much as 40,000 square miles (100,000 km2) of terrain a day.

The Global Hawk is operated by the United States Air Force and U.S. Navy. It is used as a high-altitude platform for surveillance and security. Missions for the Global Hawk cover the spectrum of intelligence collection capability to support forces in worldwide military operations. According to the United States Air Force, the superior surveillance capabilities of the aircraft allow more precise weapons targeting and better protection of friendly forces. Cost overruns have led to the original plan to acquire 63 aircraft being cut to 45, and to a 2013 proposal to mothball the 21 Block 30 signal-intelligence variants.[1] Each aircraft was to cost US$35 million in 2005,[2] but this had risen to $222.7M per aircraft (including development costs) by 2013.[1] The U.S. Navy has developed the Global Hawk into the MQ-4C Triton version for maritime surveillance.

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The Global Hawk is another expensive piece of technology that should not have been built. At a quarter of a billion dollars each.