Northrop Grumman has secured an Air Force agreement to expand the company’s participation in the Department of Defense’s (DoD) SkyRange program.
Northrop Grumman’s engineering and planning work to reconfigure four United States Air Force EQ-4 Block 20 Global Hawk aircraft for use in the SkyRange fleet supports the Department of Defense Test Resource Management Center (TRMC).
“The SkyRange program exploits the intrinsic strengths of Global Hawk — altitude, persistence, payload, and flexibility,” Jane Bishop, vice president and general manager, global surveillance, Northrop Grumman, said. “Grand Sky’s high-tech facility with a modern 35,000 square foot hangar provides the ideal location for engineering modifications to Global Hawk in support of the SkyRange program.”
The scope of work, officials noted, involves equipping the four EQ-4 aircraft with sensors possessing the ability to demonstrate an alternative data collection support system supporting testing domestic hypersonic systems.
Modifications of the Block 20 jets are slated to occur at Northrop Grumman’s Grand Sky facility near Grand Forks, North Dakota.
Global Hawk serves as the premier autonomous, high-altitude, long-endurance
Intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) platform for the Air Force and its global partners, officials noted. Global Hawk is receiving ground station, cyber resiliency and mission planning upgrades as a means of delivering intelligence to Combatant Commanders while executing new missions without placing personnel in harm’s way.