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Global Hawk completes trans-Atlantic flight

  • Published
  • By Staff Sgt. Zachary Wilson
  • 9th Reconnaissance Wing Public Affairs
BEALE AIR FORCE BASE, Calif. --  In a first of it's kind mission, the RQ-4A Global Hawk program met another milestone Thursday as the first of four of the unmanned Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance aircraft departed Beale to replace war-tested aircraft in the theater.

While this is not the first time the 9th Reconnaissance Wing has replaced the RQ-4 in theater, it is the first time that the flights have flown eastward, landing at Patuxent River Naval Air Station, Md., before continuing on to the area-of-responsibility. The previous routes have been flown over the vast expanses of the Pacific with a stop-over in Guam, according to base maintenance officials.

"This is also the first time we have conducted a joint mission with the Navy for this type of mission," said Capt. Sol Snedeker, 9th Aircraft Maintenance Squadron. The Global Hawks will land at the Pax River NAS for code updates and will be flown by contractors using Navy facilities for the duration of the journey.

Ultimately, Beale will send over two aircraft to replace two that have performed continuous duty for more than 2 years. According to Captain Snedeker, the aircraft will be sent forward and back one at a time to ensure the host unit 380th Air Expeditionary Wing's mission is not degraded.

"(the 380th) will never have less than two fully mission ready aircraft during this transition," she said. "The mission will continue as always, as the next plane will not be rotated in until the first one comes back."

Once the planes are back at Beale, they are scheduled to undergo significant inspection and maintenance from the professionals of the 9th Maintenance Group.

"They are looking pretty rough and our people are going to have a lot of work ahead of them," Captain Snedeker said.

The last time Beale sent RQ-4s to the 380th was when the two current production model Block 10s replaced two demonstration models that were pressed into service shortly after 9/11. Slated to fly only 500 hours, the demonstration models surpassed 3,000 at the time of swap-out in 2006.