Читать книгу Introduction to UAV Systems - Mohammad H. Sadraey - Страница 40

The requirement for a Global Hawk type of system grew out of Operation Desert Storm (in 1991). The Global Hawk was intended to compliment or replace the aging U‐2 spy plane fleet. The Global Hawk is an advanced intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance air system (i.e., ISR mission). The strategy for this UAV program involved four phases, which were to be completed between 1994 and 1999.

It flew for the first time at Edwards Air Force Base, California, on Saturday, February 28, 1998. The first flight of the Global Hawk became the first UAV to cross the Pacific Ocean in April 2001 when it flew from the United States to Australia. The entire mission, including the takeoff and landing, was performed autonomously by the UAV as planned.

A total of 21 sorties of flight tests were conducted over 16 months using two air vehicles accumulating 158 total flight hours. It entered service in 2001 and reached the serial production stage in 2003. The Global Hawks, monitored by shifts of pilots in a ground control station in California, fly 24‐hour missions, and they are cheaper to operate than the manned aircraft Lockheed U‐2.