Beale receives new Global Hawk RPA

  • Published
  • By Senior Airman Christine Collier
  • 9th RW Public Affairs
Beale AFB, Calif. --  Beale's second RQ-4 Global Hawk Remotely Piloted Aircraft arrived here Nov. 3 at 4:51 p.m., landing directly on the center line of the flight line. 

The aircraft, a Block 10 model flown in from Edwards Air Force Base, was landed by Lt. Col. Christopher Jella, 18th Reconnaissance Squadron commander. 

"I had to ensure all systems were up to training standards to include appropriate technical orders and a solid training program, which we have been building for the last year," said Colonel Jella. "It was a huge relief when all the systems checked out and the Global Hawk finally landed." 

The Global Hawk, designed and manufactured by Northrop-Grumman, provides Air Force and joint battlefield commanders near-real-time, high-resolution, intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance imagery to fight the Global War on Terror. 

The first Global Hawk, which arrived in October of 2004, was used as a maintenance trainer for the past two years. With the arrival of the second production model, both aircraft will eventually become trainer models. 

"Last week, we did not have the ability to execute the Launch and Recovery Element flight portion of the training, so required our student pilots to deploy where our only LRE flight training equipment existed," Colonel Jella said. "Now that we have a functioning LRE and aircraft here, our pilots no longer need to deploy to accomplish that portion of their formal training." 

The new arrival is the second of seven Block 10 Global Hawks scheduled to be stationed at Beale. 

A third aircraft is expected later this winter, to be followed by another Global Hawk in the spring. 

Beale will also begin receiving Block 20 models, which have a larger wingspan, higher maximum payload capacity and longer maximum flight time, beginning in 2009. 

"The Air Force's fleet of Global Hawks will eventually reach 54 aircraft," Ted Ross, Northrop-Grumman Beale site manger, said. "The majority of those aircraft will be stationed in forward-deployed locations." 

The remainder of the Global Hawk fleet will split between Beale and Grand Forks Air Force Base, N.D., said Mr. Ross. 

The new aircraft is scheduled for its first flight from Beale this winter.