05/06/2013 Thomas Schnee – L’Expansion

Le ministère allemand de la défense a mis 6 ans pour réaliser que des drones achetés aux Etats-Unis n'auraient pas le droit de voler en Europe. Un scandale à 550 million d'euros. Thomas de Maizière, le ministre préféré d'Angela Merkel, essaye de sauver sa tête.

Achèteriez-vous une voiture si on vous explique qu'elle ne pourra être homologuée pour circuler sur les routes? Certainement pas. C'est pourtant ce qu'a fait le ministère allemand de la Défense en signant, en 2007, un contrat avec le constructeur américain Northrop Grumman. Dans ce contrat d'un montant évalué à 1,3 milliard d'euros, Northrop s'est engagé à livrer 5 drones de type Global Hawk, le plus gros de tous les drones de surveillance jamais construit.

Le premier appareil-test, rebaptisé Euro Hawk, a atterri en Allemagne l'été dernier pour y subir diverses modifications, comme sa mise aux normes européennes ou l'installation d'un système de surveillance mis au point par EADS. A cette date, l'Allemagne a déjà déboursé plusieurs centaines de millions d'euros pour ce programme d'armement. Mais quelques mois plus tard, c'est le coup de théâtre: le ministre fait savoir que les coûts de certification étant trop élevés (600 millions d'euros), l'Allemagne se désengage du programme. Pour le budget de la défense, la perte sèche est de 550 millions d'euros ! Une somme qui permettrait de créer près de 50 000 places de crèches, fait ironiquement remarquer le magazine Der Spiegel.

Pour la chancelière Angela Merkel, l'affaire tombe mal. Elle implique directement le ministre de la Défense Thomas de Maizière, son plus fidèle collaborateur et successeur potentiel. Elle éclate aussi 4 mois avant les élections législatives, alors même que la Chancelière est en pleine campagne électorale et fait tout pour convaincre les Allemands qu'avec elle, leur argent est bien gardé. Depuis l'annonce du ministre, le 14 mai dernier, le "scandale Euro Hawk" occupe en effet plus la une des journaux allemands. Outre-Rhin, tout le monde se demande évidemment pourquoi le bataillon d'experts de la Luftwaffe et du ministère n'a pas prévu ce scénario, ce qui aurait permis d'arrêter les frais beaucoup plutôt.

C'est donc pour répondre à cette question et justifier tant l'attitude de ses services que la sienne que Thomas de Maizière a promis de tout dire en ce mercredi 5 juin. Et c'est un ministre fatigué mais décidé qui est apparu devant la presse à la mi-journée, entre deux auditions parlementaires. La ligne de défense qu'il a adoptée se résume brièvement : il ne savait rien. Il est donc responsable mais pas coupable ! M. de Maizière a ainsi expliqué que ses deux secrétaires d'Etat Rüdiger Wolf et Stéphane Beemelmans ne l'avaient jamais informé de la gravité des problèmes du dossier Euro Hawk. Et ce n'est qu'en mai 2013 qu'il aurait découvert le pot aux roses.

Ce choix tactique, qui implique que l'un ou l'autre secrétaire d'Etat pourrait bientôt jouer le rôle de fusible, montre que M. de Maizière n'a pas abandonné l'espoir de conserver son maroquin ministériel. Mais le rapport que la Cour fédérale des comptes a également décidé de publier aujourd'hui enfonce le clou. A la décharge du ministre, les contrôleurs fédéraux rappelle qu'il est entré en fonction en mars 2011. Il n'est donc ni l'auteur, ni le seul responsable de cette gabegie. Pourtant, à cette date, les graves problèmes liés à la certification ont déjà été signalés à maintes reprises par les experts de la Luftwaffe.

Malgré cela, les services ministériels ont continué à " pousser " le dossier comme si de rien n'était, explique le rapport qui considère qu'une intervention plus précoce aurait pu avoir lieu. Surtout, la Cour fédérale des comptes dépeint les lenteurs, pesanteurs et aberrations du fonctionnement d'une administration ministérielle et militaire qui a pourtant récemment fait l'objet d'une grande réforme, cette fois-ci sous l'entière responsabilité de ... Thomas de Maizière qui va avoir bien du mal à sortir indemne du scandale Euro Hawk.

February 27, 2013:  Strategy Page

The U.S. Navy has begun gathering sailors and equipment for its first Global Hawk UAV squadron. Called VUP (Unmanned Patrol Squadron) 19 it will be in service by October on the east coast of the United States, where it will handle operations over the Atlantic. For naval service the RQ-4 Global Hawk UAV is called the MQ-4C Triton and BAMS (Broad Area Maritime Surveillance). A second squadron will enter service next year on the west coast to cover the Pacific.  The navy plans to buy 68 Tritons and 117 P-8As jet aircraft to replace prop driven 250 P-3Cs. This replacement program is supposed to be complete in about a decade. The new surveillance aircraft provide more information over a wider area and do it more quickly.

The Triton has already been in service on an experimental basis. Last year, two years after extensive tests in the Middle East, the Triton began operating with a carrier task force at sea. Circling above the task force at 22,500 meters (70,000 feet), Triton monitored sea traffic off the Iranian coast and the Straits of Hormuz. Anything suspicious is checked out by carrier or land based aircraft, or nearby warships. The Triton aircraft fly a 24 hour sortie every three days. The first production Triton was delivered six months ago.

In 2009, the Triton test consisted of 60 flights and over 1,000 hours in the air. The flights were over land and sea areas, even though the UAV sensors are designed mainly to perform maritime reconnaissance. U.S. Air Force Global Hawk maintenance personnel assisted the navy in tending to the navy RQ-4 while it was on the ground, and for landings and takeoffs. The UAV was operated by navy personnel back in the United States at Patuxent River Naval Air Station. A year earlier, the navy began training four of its personnel (three P-3 pilots and one civilian) to operate RQ-4s. The four navy operator trainees were in an accelerated course (four months instead of five) and were available to help fly U.S. Air Force RQ-4s before the navy RQ-4s test model became operational in 2009.

The P-3 replacement, the P-8A is expected to complement Triton. Although the Boeing 737 based P-8A is a two engine jet, compared to the four engine turboprop P-3C it is replacing, it is a more capable plane. The P-8A has 23 percent more floor space than the P-3, and is larger (118 foot wingspan, versus 100 foot) and heavier (83 tons versus 61). Most other characteristics are the same. Both can stay in the air about ten hours per sortie. Speed however is different. Cruise speed for the 737 is 910 kilometers an hour, versus 590 for the propeller driven P-3. This makes it possible for the P-8A to get to a patrol area faster, which is a major advantage when chasing down subs spotted by sonar arrays or satellites. However, the P-3 can carry more weapons (9 tons, versus 5.6). This is less of a factor as the weapons (torpedoes, missiles, mines, sonobouys) are pound for pound more effective today and that trend continues. Both carry the same size crew, of 10-11 pilots and equipment operators. Both aircraft carry search radar and various other sensors.

The 737 has, like the P-3, been equipped with bomb hard points on the wings for torpedoes or missiles. The B-737 is a more modern design and has been used successfully since the 1960s by commercial aviation. Navy aviators are confident that it will be as reliable as the P-3 (which was based on the Electra civilian airliner that first flew in 1954. Although only 170 were built, plus 600 P-3s, about 20 Electras are still in service). The Boeing 737 first flew in 1965 and over 5,000 have been built. The P-8A will be the first 737 designed with a bomb bay and four wing racks for weapons.

The U.S. Air Force and Navy are buying the B version of the RQ-4 Global Hawk UAVs, at a cost of over $60 million each. This version is larger (wingspan is 5 meters/15 feet larger, at 42.2 meters/131 feet, and it's nine percent longer at 15.5 meters/48 feet) than the A model, and can carry more equipment. To support that, there's a new generator that produces 150 percent more electrical power. The RQ-4 has a range of over 22,000 kilometers and a cruising speed of 650 kilometers an hour.

The first three RQ-4Bs entered service in 2006. At 13 tons, the Global Hawk is the size of a commuter airliner (like the Embraer ERJ 145), but costs nearly twice as much. Global Hawk can be equipped with much more powerful and expensive sensors, which more than double the cost of the aircraft. These "spy satellite quality" sensors (especially AESA radar) are usually worth the expense because they enable the UAV, flying at over 20,000 meters (62,000 feet), to get a sharp picture of all the territory it can see from that altitude. The B version is supposed to be a lot more reliable. Early A models tended to fail and crash at the rate of once every thousand flight hours.

The maritime RQ-4 is seen as the ultimate replacement for all manned maritime patrol aircraft. The P-8A will probably be the last manned naval search aircraft. Some countries are using satellite communications to put the sensor operators who staff manned patrol aircraft on the ground. Some nations propose sending aircraft like the P-3 or P-8 aloft with just their flight crews, having all the other gear operated from the ground. This enables the aircraft to stay in the air longer and carry more gear.

May. 20, 2012 By KATE BRANNEN  Defense news

CHICAGO — NATO leaders are expected to unveil several new multinational projects at its summit here this weekend aimed at better integrating European defense planning and capabilities.

The goal is to counter the continued decline of European defense budgets and financial contributions to NATO, a situation made worse by the ongoing sovereign debt crisis.

Europeans realize that they’re not going to have more defense resources, but they’ve got to do better with what they have, Stephen Flanagan, a defense and security analyst with the Center for Strategic and International Studies, said.

“Our European allies are still spending an enormous amount of money on defense, but they don’t spend it very wisely and there is a lot of redundancy. For $282 billion last year, NATO Europe should be able to get a lot more out of that than it does.”

At the Chicago summit, NATO will build upon its “Smart Defense” initiative, which encourages countries to coordinate their defense planning, paying close attention to where others are making budget cuts so as not to lose certain capabilities completely.

Three flagship projects — missile defense, Baltic air policing and Allied Ground Surveillance (AGS) — will be highlighted.

On missile defense, NATO is expected to announce an interim capability for a new missile defense shield. The planned purchase of five Global Hawk surveillance UAVs as part of the AGS project was announced in February.

In addition to these announcements, NATO is expected to unveil a package of more than 20 multinational projects that aim to fill capability gaps.

Whether these projects will help Europe shore up its defense capabilities remains to be seen, but observers will be watching the summit for clues.

“What I would watch is what’s the balance between rhetoric and practical projects,” said Ian Brzezinski, an Atlantic Council senior fellow who served as deputy assistant secretary of defense for Europe and NATO Policy from 2001 to 2005.

“There is a tendency in the alliance to focus on vision statements and plans that are 10 years out. They sound good, they make you feel good and you don’t have to do anything about them for several years,” Brzezinski said.

While the three big-ticket items are important, they are either long-term projects or, in the case of Baltic air policing, something NATO has been doing for some time, Brzezinski said.

“NATO publics need to see an alliance that’s credible and they’re not going to find as persuasive 10-year visions as they will practical projects that can be accomplished tomorrow,” Brzezinski said.

For this reason, he said he’d like to see greater emphasis placed on the less glamorous, but more practical projects, which include joint procurement of armored ambulances and communications equipment, the establishment of joint logistics hubs for armored personnel carriers, and joint training facilities.

Measured Expectations

While some NATO watchers would like to see more dramatic statements of commitment come out of Chicago, most expectations remain modest.

The Obama administration is hoping for few surprises, said Mark Jacobson, who served from 2009 to 2011 at the NATO International Security Assistance Force Headquarters in Kabul. “The idea is: ‘Let’s get through this and push things along.’”

Unlike the last summit in Lisbon in 2010, Chicago is not “an ideas summit,” Jacobson said.

The 2012 summit also is not about inviting new countries to join NATO, such as the 2008 summit in Bucharest.

However, while it may have started out as simply an “implementation summit,” a time for leaders to take stock of progress and chart out near-term plans, the Chicago summit is shaping into something a little more.

There is awareness that given the recent changes in the world, from the Arab Spring to the sovereign debt crisis in Europe, that NATO has to take these changes into account as it considers its future, Flanagan said

Brzezinski said he viewed the summit as an important opportunity for the United States and Europe to reaffirm their commitments to each other.

He said he is troubled by what he sees as disengagement on both sides of the Atlantic: the United States looking to Asia and Europe looking inward.

“If the Europeans don’t sign on for a serious plan for sustaining their defense commitment in tight fiscal times, and if it seems as if the alliance is running for the exits in Afghanistan, then it is going to have damaging consequences for the alliance,” Flanagan said.

However, it will bode well if the basic transition timetable in Afghanistan is reaffirmed and countries make a good faith effort on Smart Defense, making it more than just a passing slogan, he said.

13 February 2012 - by Andrew White – Shepard Group

Northrop Grumman is studying ‘more efficient ways’ of operating the RQ-4 Global Hawk Block 30 UAS in order to reduce costs and force the US Department of Defense (DoD) into a dramatic U-turn, Shephard has been informed.

According to senior executives within the company, Northrop Grumman is looking at the ramifications and impact of the DoD’s decision on 26 January to cap the programme in favour of Lockheed Martin’s U-2 aircraft- a platform which has been in operation since 1956. Speaking to Shephard, Northrop Grumman executives said meetings were ongoing with USAF and OSD officials.

Further details of the cuts were expected to be unveiled in budget proposals submitted to Congress on 13 February. One company source said: ‘The air force has expressed concern at the loss of capability in theatres and we are having meetings with the air force and OSD and discussing what it would mean if [cuts were] implemented. This is a proposal and not a final decision.’

Claiming that the system was performing ‘very well’ overseas on operations, sources said the decision was budgetary and not value-driven. ‘[Global Hawk Block 30] programme of record was set up to replace the U-2 with all the same support mechanisms. For example, about a third of the U-2 fleet would be deployed while the remainder stay home for training and mission preparation. ‘Global Hawk doesn’t need to do that. These were assumptions made when we built the programme but it can be “skinnied” down considering what we’re learning,’ they added. ‘Most training for Global Hawk is conducted on the job during missions. There are huge savings for the training tail.’

Admitting that there were ‘deficiencies in sensors’ compared to the U-2, officials conceded that there were ‘niche capabilities’ that the U-2 held over Global Hawk. Conversely, they said: ‘There are things that Global Hawk does with sensors that U-2 cannot do.’ They added that official air force data unveiled in the middle of last year showed how U-2 was less expensive to operate than Global Hawk on a cost per flight basis. However, they claimed that these statistics had since been reversed. ‘There has been a change in the maturity of the system. One-time costs associated with it were assumed into the database,’ they continued while describing how the system had not completed its scheduled amount of total flying hours last year, thereby increasing operational costs per hour.

According to Northrop Grumman, there are daily discussions with different elements within the USAF regarding Global Hawk Block 30. ‘We are all waiting for the actual budget to drop. Our suggestions centre around how and where to save dollars.’

Meanwhile, company officials said they were in the midst of initial discussions with the Singapore government regarding Foreign Military Sales of the Broad Area Maritime Surveillance (BAMS) Global Hawk variant. Having described ‘general briefings’ with Singapore officials, a Northrop Grumman source said: ‘We chatted them up and are keeping them up to speed on BAMS. As they roll out their requirement, we will see where they stand.’

The first flight of the BAMS MQ-4C is scheduled to take place in the US during September with an initial operating capability due to be implemented for the US Navy by December 2015. Similarly, Northrop Grumman is keeping the Australian DoD informed of programme activity. Company officials were in Australia last week to discuss specifics with their System Design and Development partner. Elsewhere, it emerged that Northrop Grumman has responded to India’s RfI for a HALE maritime UAS.

Jan 26, 2012 by Zach Rosenberg – Flight Global

Washington DC - Northrop Grumman projects advance despite a budget cut to one of the company's highest-profile programmes. The RQ-4 Global Hawk Block 30 will be cut, according to media reports. The aged Lockheed Martin U-2, which the Block 30 is intended to replace, will continue to fly for the foreseeable future. Fourteen Block 30s aircraft have been delivered, with the government committed to another seven aircraft. The total inventory will effectively be capped at 21 aircraft, a cut of 10 from the most recently-provided total.

"The Block 30 priced itself out of the niche for taking pictures from the air," said Ashton Carter, under secretary of defense of acquisition, technology and logistics. "That's the fate of things that become too expensive in a resource-constrained environment."

The project has twice breached the Nunn-McCurdy Act, requiring justification if a programme is more than 25% over budget, and has received mixed reviews in official evaluations.

Another variant of the troubled Global Hawk programme, the Block 40, of which the Air Force has ordered 11, will continue unabated. The Navy's MQ-4C broad area maritime surveillance (BAMS) variant, similar in configuration to the Block 30, will also continue.

The General Atomics Aeronautical Systems Predator series of systems, including the MQ-1B Predator, MQ-9A Reaper and MQ-1C Gray Eagle, were spared major changes. The DoD will continue with plans to procure 65 combat air patrols (CAP) of Reapers, with each system comprised of four aircraft a piece. The Air Force will be able to surge to 85 CAPs, though details of where the aircraft will come from were not immediately available.

Northrop released a statement saying the company was "disappointed with the Pentagon's decision, and plans to work with the Pentagon to assess alternatives to program termination."

Despite the setback, Northrop continues to advance BAMS and other programmes. The multi-function active sensor (MFAS) radar made its first flight, and there are no intentions of delaying the aircraft buy. The first aircraft is under construction, scheduled for first flight in the second quarter of 2012.

December 24, 2011: STRATEGY PAGE

The U.S. Air Force has again delayed the retirement of its U-2S reconnaissance aircraft. Now the U-2 may remain in service until 2016 or later. The reason is the continued failure of the Global Hawk UAV to prove it can replace the manned U-2. Congress wants the Global Hawk to pass tests proving it can do everything the U-2 can before the U-2, which entered service 56 years ago, is retired.

For the last five years the U.S. Air Force has been trying to replace its manned U-2 reconnaissance aircraft with the RQ-4 Global Hawk. This has not worked out well. In addition to the problems with Global Hawks' reliability and dependability, another issue has been in the superiority of the sensors carried by the U-2. So why not just install the U-2 sensors in the Global Hawk? The problem here is weight and space. The U-2 is a larger and heavier aircraft, and even with a pilot, has more carrying capacity. Air force suppliers keep promising that they have the problem solved but after several generations of Global Hawk sensor redesigns and improvements, it will still be a few years before the Global Hawk will be competitive and the U-2 will be out of a job.

Then there's the UAV software, which has still not matched the capabilities of pilots. The humans still have an edge over robotic systems, especially when it comes to emergencies. But another advantage that the U-2 has is that it has been around for half a century. Its quirks and foibles are well known. The Global Hawk is not only new but is also the first of a new kind of robotic aircraft.

Global Hawk has crossed the Pacific, from North America to Australia, using onboard computers to run everything. While impressive, Global Hawk still has a tendency to get into trouble unexpectedly and not know how to recover. More work needs to be done on the software and, to a lesser extent, the hardware used by Global Hawk. Since no one can (or at least will) swear when Global hawk reliability will be up to acceptable standards plans are being made to keep the U-2s around for a while longer - just in case.

This popularity is running the U-2s ragged. Two years ago, for example, two 41 year old U-2s achieved a record 25,000 hours in the air. One of these aircraft had made three belly (landing gear up) landings, requiring extensive rebuilding after each incident.

With a range of over 11,000 kilometers, the 18 ton U-2s typically fly missions 12 hours long. All U-2s have been upgraded to the Block 20 standard, so they can be kept in service until the end of this decade. Or at least until the 13 ton Global Hawk is completely debugged and available in sufficient quantity to replace it. The U-2 has been in service since 1955 and only 86 were built, of which 26 remain in service. Less than 900 pilots have qualified to fly the U-2 in that time.

The heavy use of the U-2 has been hard on the pilots. Missions can be as long as 12 hours and pilots operate in a cockpit pressurized to conditions found at 30,000 feet. This puts more strain on the pilot's body. That, and the fact that they breathe pure oxygen while up there, means they tend to be completely exhausted after returning from a long mission. U-2s fly missions daily over the Middle East, Afghanistan, and Korea.

This wasn't supposed to happen. Five years ago the U.S. Air Force wanted to retire its U-2s and replace them with UAVs like Global Hawk. But Congress refused to allow it, partly for political reasons (jobs would be lost, which is always a live political issue) and because some in Congress (and the air force) did not believe that Global Hawk was ready to completely replace the U-2. This turned out to be correct. New Global Hawks continue to appear but there is so much demand for the kind of recon work the two aircraft can do that both pilots and robots will coexist for a while. But eventually the old reliable U-2 will be retired.

A Global Hawk mock-up at the UK's Royal International Air Tattoo in 2009

14/06/11 By Stephen Trimble SOURCE:Flight International

Despite no lack of interest, acquiring a dedicated platform to detect ground moving targets on radar has eluded NATO for 20 years.

Casualties in the quest among NATO's European partners lay strewn across the historical records like the bombed-out tanks of Iraq's III Corps along the highway from Kuwait City to Basra in February 1991. France mothballed the Horizon, a radar-equipped Eurocopter AS532 Cougar, in 2008.

Italy developed the CRESO radar for the AgustaBell 412 helicopter, but that project also fizzled. Perhaps the most successful project - the Royal Air Force Sentinel R1 fleet equipped with the airborne stand-off radar - is to exit service post-Afghanistan campaign.

Each of these projects was launched in the aftermath of a failed push by the US government in the mid-1990s to persuade NATO to acquire the Northrop Grumman E-8C JSTARS airborne ground surveillance system. JSTARS pioneered the application of ground moving target indicator (GMTI) radar and spotted Iraq's III Corps en route to Basra through a sandstorm.

NATO is as close today as it has ever been to finally awarding a contract for a GMTI system, now defined as the RQ-4 Block 40 with the Northrop/Raytheon multi-platform radar technology insertion programme sensor.

Northrop submitted its proposal in March. A contract for six aircraft is to be awarded in October, to fulfil a vision nearly 20 years old.

In the interim between the JSTARS proposal and the Global Hawk-based Alliance Ground Surveillance (AGS) system, NATO's European members have decided that they cannot afford the expense of a national GMTI capability. Instead, NATO has approved a system based exclusively on the RQ-4 Block 40 already in service with the US government.

© Northrop Grumman
An RQ-4 Block 40 in action

"The airframe and the sensor are identical to the US Air Force. The only thing we've done is we've added a European wideband datalink to the system to allow unfetterred flow of information," says Matthew Copija, director of Northrop's AGS programme. "There are no [export control] issues associated with getting the data down. We made it cleaner from an export standpoint approach."

Allowing the GMTI data to flow among all of NATO's members is critical for preserving its support as defence budgets tighten. The alliance has been making progress on interoperability over the past 15 years.

© Northrop Grumman
A Global Hawk shot over Haiti

The first step was setting up a NATO command, control and communications agency (NC3A) testbed in 1996. That led to development of coalition aerial surveillance and reconnaissance (Caesar), establishing protocols for exchanging classified data generated from the synthetic aperture radars of member countries. The next step - developing software to facilitate that exchange - brought the advent of the multi-sensor aerospace-ground joint intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance interoperability coalition (MAJIIC).

"NC3A started out as a testbed, it turned into Caesar," Copija says. "Caesar now has MAJIIC. [That system is about] how do they deal with interoperability within NATO on GMTI data and it's becoming a key backbone system for NATO as we go forward."

That is not to suggest that NATO has overcome the budget and operational challenges that have delayed the GMTI programme for decades. Even as member countries experimented with individual programmes, NATO tried to launch the transatlantic industrial proposed solution programme, which included the RQ-4 and the Airbus A321 with the Thomson-CSF applications radar (TCAR).

"The TCAR became the critical path for deployment of the system," Copija says. "The nations that weren't really benefiting from it, they all came away... [deciding] the return on investment and technology reuse just wasn't there for the risk and cost associated."

Instead, NATO has settled for an off-the-shelf system that includes six RQ-4s - down from eight air vehicles - based at Sigonella air base in Sicily. The system also includes an almost entirely off-the-shelf ground system. If NATO members object to GMTI this time, it will not be driven by the budget or schedule of the development phase. "This approach is a turnkey," Copija says. "It is designed to develop it, demonstrate it, qualify it and then produce it and then stand it up, all in one single contract."

For the ground station, the proposed offer calls for EADS to be responsible for the mobile system, including a communications truck and a trailer. Selex, meanwhile, is working with Romania and Bulgaria to develop a mobile operating base. "The [NATO] force commander stands up every day and says he needs it," Copija says. "It will save alliance lives and save troops on the ground and protect them. It makes them more efficient and effective at what they do. The reason it survives is operationally it has a need."

See the latest in unmanned air vehicles

An artist concept showing the Global Hawk RQ-4B Block 40 configured for the NATO AGS core capability. Photo: Northrop Grumman

March 29, 2011 by Tamir Eshel DEFENSE UPDATE

Northrop Grumman Corporation submitted its final proposal for the NATO Alliance Ground Surveillance (AGS) core capability. NATO AGS system will employ an air segment consisting of six Northrop Grumman Block 40 Global Hawks specially missionized to provide persistent intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance to ground, maritime and air commanders, anytime and anywhere in the world. These Global hawks will be equipped with Northrop Grumman’s Multi-Platform Radar Technology Insertion Program (MP-RTIP) ground surveillance radar sensor, which will be capable of detecting and tracking moving objects throughout the observed areas, as well as providing radar imagery of target locations and stationary objects.

The primary ground segment component will consist of a number of ground stations in different configurations, such as mobile and transportable configurations, which will provide data link connectivity, data processing and exploitation capabilities, and interfaces for interoperability with Command, Control Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance(C2ISR) systems. The AGS Core ground segment will also include dedicated mission support facilities at the AGS Main Operating Bases (MOB), and ground stations for flight control of the UAVs. The Main Operating Base will be located at Sigonella Air Base, Italy. The Core system will be supplemented by interoperable national airborne stand-off ground surveillance systems from NATO countries, thus forming a system of systems.

NATO AGS program was approved by European heads of state and government as a priority capability initiative at the 2010 Lisbon Summit. In support of the new strategic concept, system will establish a network-enabled sensor system, supporting interoperability with national systems in support of all possible missions, including force protection, border and maritime security, counter- and anti-terrorism, crisis management, peacekeeping and enforcement, and natural disaster relief.

The current proposal is based on refinements introduced by the team to meet NATO requirements. “Our updated proposal offers an affordable, executable program that will provide an operationally relevant system to the Alliance,” said Pat McMahon, sector vice president of Northrop Grumman Aerospace Systems’ Battle Management & Engagement Systems Division. Northrop Grumman is expecting contract award by July 2011.

NATO embarked on the AGS program in 1995, when the NATO Defence Ministers agreed to develop a pooled NATO asset, consisting of both manned and unmanned platforms, as well as ground control stations in various configurations. The manned platform was to be based on the Airbus A321 commercial airliner, and the unmanned platform on the Global Hawk high altitude long endurance UAV. Both the manned and unmanned platforms were to carry the Transatlantic Cooperative AGS Radar (TCAR). In November 2007, however, due to declining European defense budgets, NATO chose to move forward with a UAV-only solution based on the Global Hawk RQ-4B and the multi-platform radar technology insertion program (MP-RTIP). With this revision, the number of cooperating nations was reduced from 24 to 14.

NATO AGS is the first international sale of the Block 40 Global Hawk. The ground element, which provides real-time data, intelligence and target identification to commanders within and beyond line of sight, will be wholly produced by the team’s European industry partners, offering the potential for national re-use in other programs as well as direct work in the program for the participating nations. Northrop Grumman is the prime contractor for the program, leading a team which includes companies from each of nations participating in the acquisition.

The program is managed by NATO Alliance Ground Surveillance Management Agency (NAGSMA) and being implemented by the AGS Implementation Office (AGS IO) at Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe (SHAPE). The agency was established in September 2009 after all participating nations signed the AGS Program Memorandum of Understanding. NAGSMA, was chartered to acquire the NATO-owned and operated core capability, and is responsible for the procurement of the NATO AGS capability until it has reached full operational capability at the NATO AGS main operating base in Italy.