MILITARY HIGH-ALTITUDE ISR

T

oday remotely piloted

aircraft are an integral part of

the intelligence, surveillance

and reconnaissance

(ISR) mission. Their

importance was stressed

by commander of US Air

Forces in Europe, General

Tod Wolters, speaking

from his headquarters at

Ramstein Germany, on July 27. He said that

he: “Wants to ensure, from an ISR standpoint,

that we have the eyes and ears on station,

remotely piloted aircraft are a huge part of the

international ISR enterprise. The longer an

airframe can stay on station, the less sorties you

have to fly and the greater your presence.”

Today, none of the ISR platforms available to

General Wolters can stay on station longer and

fly higher – hence looking deeper into closed

airspace – than the Northrop Grumman RQ-4A

Global Hawk. Currently, US Air Force Global

Hawks have been flying ISR missions lasting

30 hours or more to watch many of the world’s

hotspots from 65,000 feet. Global Hawks

based at Naval Air Station Sigonella, Sicily fly

over Ukraine to watch Russia’s hybrid warfare

against that country’s eastern frontier.

At the same time, Global Hawks are

heavily committed to the multi-platform

ISR architecture watching North Korea,

based at Andersen Air Force Base, Guam

or forward-deployed to Misawa Air Base,

Japan. While in recent years the Air Force

had made a practice on annually deploying

one or two Global Hawks from Guam to

Misawa, this year five were sent, reflecting

the rising tensions in the region. The Block

40 version of the Global Hawk is particularly

valuable because of its ground moving target

indication radar capability that allows it to

detect and track the movement of ground

objects, in near real time and transmit the

information via datalink to the distributed

common ground system network.

Global Hawk in a multi-platform

ISR architecture

US Air Force Global Hawks will have to carry

out their mission in the future alongside a

range of manned and unmanned platforms –

many of them operated by coalition partners –

in addition to new types coming in to the ISR

architecture from the black world of classified

programmes. The Global Hawk itself, in

addition to being used by the US Air Force

(with a fleet of 33 air vehicles), is also used

by the US Navy and the National Aeronautics

and Space Administration. Global Hawks

have been ordered by the North Atlantic

Treaty Organization (NATO), Japan and the

Republic of Korea.

In the future, the Global Hawk will work

alongside the US Navy’s maritime MQ-4C

Triton unmanned air vehicle. The first

operational MQ-4C detachment outside the

continental US will be to Guam, co-located

with the Global Hawks, next year – the

Triton has attracted the interest of multiple

international customers. A memorandum of

understanding with Australia for its planned

procurement of seven Tritons is expected

to be signed in March 2018. Letters of

offers and acceptance for Germany’s

procurement of up to four Tritons – to be

integrated with German-developed signals

intelligence systems originally intended for

the EuroHawk version of the Global Hawk –

are planned to be signed in late 2018. The

UK, Canada, Japan and Norway have also

expressed interest in the Triton.

In recent years, the focus of Global Hawk

in US Air Force service had been to integrate

a range of new sensors to allow it to take

David C. Isby questions what systems are

likely to follow America’s current types of

high altitude surveillance platforms

High Altitude

ISR

According to the US Air Force, the U-2S Dragon Lady provides high-

altitude, all-weather surveillance and reconnaissance, day or night.

It’s suite of sensors gather critical imagery and signals intelligence for

decision makers throughout all phases of conflict, including peacetime

indications and warnings, low-intensity conflict, and large-scale hostilities.

The original U-2A first flew in August 1955; the U-2R in 1967; the TR-1A

in August 1981, the variant was subsequently re-designated U-2R. The

U-2S designation was given in 1994. All U-2S aircraft are assigned to

the 9th Reconaissance Wing based at Beale Air Force Base, California.

Senior Airman Ramon Adelan/US Air Force

What

Comes

Next?