Wright-Patterson AFB, Ohio
August 11, 2003

An unmanned aircraft that is helping secure and expand the U.S. military's information dominance over adversaries in the war on terrorism formally joined the U.S. Air Force Museum's growing collection during an Aug. 8 dedication ceremony.

Officials from the museum, Northrop Grumman and Aeronautical Systems Center at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base participated in the dedication of a full-scale reproduction of the RQ-4A Global Hawk Unmanned Aerial Reconnaissance System.

The Global Hawk provides battlefield commanders with near real-time, high-resolution intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance imagery. Through advanced sensors, extended range, long flight duration and high-altitude capability, the Global Hawk can survey large geographic areas with pinpoint accuracy to give military decision makers the most current information about enemy location, resources, personnel and activity.

"Adding this Global Hawk full-scale model to our collection further boosts our ability to give the public an up-close view of the technological transformation taking place in the Air Force," said Charles D. Metcalf, museum director. "When our visitors see this massive Global Hawk model suspended from our rafters, they'll see an example of a system that is providing our troops with superior information on adversary activities and location and helping enable our forces to strike targets as they emerge."

Although still in development, Global Hawk has already served operationally in Operation Enduring Freedom in 2001 and Operation Iraqi Freedom in 2003. Global Hawk has logged more than 3,000 flight hours, with more than half of that total on combat missions.

"It is very fitting that the first full-scale model of the RQ-4A Global Hawk reside in the U.S. Air Force Museum at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, not only because it is the world's largest military aviation museum but also because the base is home to the Air Force's Aeronautical Systems Center," said Carl O. Johnson, Northrop Grumman vice president and Global Hawk program manager. "Northrop Grumman is extremely proud to provide this cutting-edge and vital combat capability to the museum to further illustrate the company's legacy of excellence and the Air Force's continued aviation supremacy."

Aeronautical Systems Center manages the Global Hawk program for the Department of Defense. The host unit at Wright-Patterson AFB, the center serves as the Air Force center responsible for developing, acquiring, modernizing and sustaining the world's best aerospace systems and related equipment for the service.

"This awesome air machine hangs in this museum alongside and with a lot of other icons to the ingenuity, creativity and the great technical power of the United States of America and the government-industry team that gives it its great air combat power," said Lt. Gen. Richard V. Reynolds, ASC commander.

The museum's full-scale Global Hawk model is on display in the Modern Flight Gallery.