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Maiden Flight for NATO AGS Global Hawk

The first RQ-4 Global Hawk developed for the NATO Allied Ground Surveillance (AGS) programme made its maiden flight out of Northrop Grumman’s Palmdale facility in California on 19 December.

The flight, which was attended by representatives from the NATO Alliance Ground Surveillance Management Organization (NAGSMO), the NATO Alliance Ground Surveillance Management Agency (NAGSMA), and the NATO Alliance Ground Surveillance Management Organization (NAGSMO), saw the high-altitude long-endurance (HALE) UAV perform a range of test points before landing at nearby Edwards Air Force Base (AFB).

Sometimes referred to as the Alliance Ground Surveillance program. AGS will see five Block 40 Global Hawk UAVs procured and operated by NATO member states Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Germany, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Norway, Poland, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, and the United States procure and operate five Global Hawk UAVs out of Sigonella Air Base in Sicily (already home to US Air Force-owned Global Hawks). Although France, Belgium, Hungary, the Netherlands, Portugal, Greece, Spain, and Turkey all withdrew their individual participation in AGS some years ago, all 28 NATO members will be involved in the long-term support of the program..

The AGS program is designed to provide all NATO member nations with a persistent and near real-time, all-weather, wide-area terrestrial and maritime surveillance system in support of a range of missions, such as the protection of ground troops and civilian populations, border control, maritime safety, and humanitarian assistance.

For this role, the Block 40 Global Hawk UAV is fitted with Northrop Grumman’s Multi-Platform Radar Technology Insertion Program (MP-RTIP) radar (designated AN/ZPY-2 in US Air Force service), which is an X-Band active electronically scanned array (AESA) sensor with ground moving target indicator (GMTI), synthetic aperture radar (SAR), air track, concurrent moving target indication, cued search, and ground high-resolution radar modes. In addition to the Global Hawks, the AGS capability comprises European-sourced mobile and transportable ground stations to provide datalink connectivity, data processing, and exploitation capabilities to multiple deployed and non-deployed operational users.

Source: Janes’