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Global Hawk Flies Unmanned Across Pacific
Adelaide - April 24, 2001 The United States� Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) Global Hawk made international aviation history Monday when it completed the first non-stop flight across the Pacific Ocean by an autonomous aircraft, flying from Edwards Air Force Base on the west coast of the U.S. to RAAF Base Edinburgh, South Australia. Global Hawk, renamed Southern Cross II for its deployment to Australia, ended its 22hour first trans-Pacific flight at the Royal Australian Air Force�s Edinburgh Base north of Adelaide at 9pm last night. It will be based at Edinburgh for the next six weeks. Dr Brendan Nelson, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for Defence said this was a historic moment in world aviation. "Emerging systems such as Global Hawk offer Australia great potential for surveillance, reconnaissance and ultimately the delivery of combat power," Dr Nelson said. While in country, the Global Hawk air vehicle number five will fly about 12 missions around Australia and its maritime approaches allowing Australia�s Defence Science and Technology Organisation (DSTO), the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) and the U.S. to jointly assess the military utility of high altitude endurance UAVs to conduct maritime, littoral and land surveillance, and stand-off reconnaissance operations. This collaboration between Australia and the United States benefits both countries. It allows Australian scientists to contribute to leading edge UAV technology while assessing the potential value of Global Hawk for the protection of Australian territory and maritime approaches. RAAF�s WGCDR Brett Newell, who leads the Global Hawk Integrated Project Team, says the Air Force was keen to explore the potential use of UAVs as it sought the most cost effective future technologies. "UAVs such as Global Hawk might offer significant potential to fundamentally change the force structure of the ADF," WGCDR Newell said. The United States Air Force�s COL Wayne Johnson said the mission to Australia would mark a tremendous achievement in the development of Global Hawk. "This cooperative effort between Australia and the United States gives our countries a great opportunity for the continued development of the Global Hawk System," COL Johnson said. DSTO�s Global Hawk Program Manager, Mr Rod Smith said, "DSTO scientists, systems analysts and engineers have provided expertise and assistance to the US in developing new maritime and littoral surveillance capabilities for Global Hawk." Maritime surveillance will be the main focus of the Global Hawk deployment to Australia. The United States benefits from Australia�s significant expertise in this area. These new capabilities will allow Global Hawk to more efficiently and effectively search large areas to detect and classify maritime targets. In a conflict, Global Hawk could be used to detect, classify and monitor a wide range of targets in our maritime approaches, close to the shore or on land. Alternatively, in peacetime it could also be used in support of national tasks. These might include Coastwatch activities, such as detection of illegal fishing, or support to national disaster management.
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