definition |
- [Source: Wikipedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Northrop_Grumman_RQ-4_Global_Hawk ]
The Northrop Grumman (formerly Ryan Aeronautical) RQ-4 Global Hawk (known as Tier II+ during development) is an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) used by the United States Air Force and Navy as a surveillance aircraft. In role and operational design, the Global Hawk is similar to the Lockheed U-2, the venerable 1950s spy plane. It is a theater commander's asset to provide a broad overview and systematic target surveillance. For this purpose, the Global Hawk is able to provide high resolution Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR)—that can penetrate cloud-cover and sandstorms— and Electro-Optical/Infrared (EO/IR) imagery at long range with long loiter times over target areas. It can survey as much as 40,000 square miles (103,600 square kilometers) of terrain a day. Group: Platform_Details Entry_ID: GLOBAL HAWK UAV Group: Platform_Identification Platform_Category: Aircraft Short_Name: GLOBAL HAWK UAV End_Group Group: Synonymous_Platform_Names Short_Name: RQ-4 Block 20 Global Hawk End_Group Group: Platform_Associated_Instruments Short_Name: HIWRAP Short_Name: HAMSR Short_Name: GHIS End_Group Creation_Date: 2011-05-26 Online_Resource: http://www.nasa.gov/topics/earth/features/global-hawk.html Online_Resource: http://www.as.northropgrumman.com/products/ghrq4b/index.html Group: Platform_Logistics Primary_Sponsor: USA/DOD Primary_Sponsor: USA/NASA End_Group End_Group
|