Northrop Grumman EURO HAWK

Northrop Grumman EURO HAWK History

The EURO HAWK Unmanned Aerial System (UAS) was developed by Northrop Grumman in the US to perform a SIGnals INtelligence role for the German military. The vehicle is based on the RQ-4 Global Hawk product (the RQ-4B Block 20 model) and is intended to be the first foreign variant of the series to be widely used by the U.S. military since its introduction in 2001. UAS would carry out specific missions - associated equipment with ELINT (ELextronic intelligence) and COMINT (communication intelligence) roles - but the program was discontinued in May 2013 due to growing concerns about obtaining civil airspace certification.

EURO HAWK will succeed outgoing Dassault-Breguet Br. 1,150 Atlantic SIGINT aircraft - fleet retired in 2010.

The EURO HAWK prototype was launched in October 2009 and made its maiden flight on June 29, 2010 - albeit over the continental United States. It was delivered to Germany for further field evaluation in July 2011. The system was abandoned due to growing concerns over vehicle certification (and the costs involved).

In the end, EURO HAWK set several European drone-related flight records in the air - a flight of more than 25 hours in a row, setting an aircraft endurance record.

Despite the loss of EURO HAWK, in early 2015 an attempt was made to build a similar UAV Northrop Grumman MQ-4C "Triton" (detailed elsewhere on this page) to fulfill the SIGINT role . Tracked by the U.S. Navy (USN), the vehicle has become an evolved UAS form of the original Global Hawk, with better chances of civil airspace certification due to features such as anti-icing.

Of course, the US Navy's endorsement of the product can only help make the Triton the next German SIGINT aircraft.

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