18 Jun 03. Bob Smith of Northrop Grumman gave BATTLESPACE a briefing on the trans-Atlantic Northrop Grumman/EADS Euro Hawk project.
Peter Steurk, the German Defence Minster recently phase out the ‘Old Europe’ projects such as heavy armour, anti-shipping aircraft and a standing army to defend Germany against European incursion to concentrate on ISR projects. The Northrop Grumman and EADS system concept for Euro Hawk is based on Global Hawk. Euro Hawk conforms to the urgent German demand for airborne, long-range reconnaissance and surveillance. Euro Hawk is being developed as a candidate to replace the Breguet Atlantic 1150 signals intelligence (SIGINT) system that will be phased out of the German military beginning in 2008.
Northrop Grumman Corporation and EADS highlighted important progress in their trans-Atlantic cooperative defense efforts with the first successful demonstration of an EADS electronics intelligence (ELINT) payload aboard a U.S. Air Force RQ-4A Global Hawk, built by Northrop Grumman’s Integrated Systems sector. U.S. Air Force and German Ministry of Defense officials conducted the demonstration during flight tests Nov. 17 and 22 2002 at Edwards Air Force Base, California.
This will be followed by a delayed autumn 2003 demonstration of the EADS-designed ELINT sensor onboard the RQ-4A Global Hawk. IMINT demonstrations are also planned. Smith told BATTLESPACE that the reason for the delay was not budgetary but the fact that the aircraft was required for duties over Iraq ion March. The aircraft is expected to depart for Germany in October once it has achieved FAA regulations for flying in manned airspace.
The 2002 Edwards flight test team demonstrated the ELINT sensor’s ability to
reliably disseminate information via data link from the sensor on board the UAV to the ground station in preparation for a Global Hawk ELINT demonstration scheduled for next spring in Germany.
“EADS and Northrop Grumman started the Euro Hawk initiative two-and-a-half years ago. Euro Hawk is fully supported by the U.S. and German air forces, and it will play a pivotal role in the future European intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance structure, including the NATO AGS program,” Smith told BATTLESPACE.
The system will be designed for high altitudes and long flight times for standoff reconnaissance and surveillance. Furthermore, a ground station for data evaluation will be developed for this reconnaissance system to meet German operational requirements.
“The Global Hawk German ELINT demonstration illustrates our progress in cooperatively developing robust unmanned systems,” said Scott J. Seymour, president of Northrop Grumman Integrated Systems.
The active TCAR radar sensor will be carried on the Euro Hawk for AGS and Germany.