The Air Force is planning to conduct a demonstration of the RQ-4 Global Hawk unmanned sensor aircraft next year in the Pacific to showcase the platform and the value of its high-resolution imagery to U.S. partners and friends there, the service’s top general in the region said recently.
Pacific Air Forces (PACAF) Commander Gen. Paul Hester said his organization is working with Air Combat Command to make the demonstration possible sometime around April to June of 2008. Already PACAF is in talks with several nations in the theater that have expressed an interest in seeing the high-flying, long-loitering platform more closely.
“We are already in discussions with the Japanese about how to penetrate their airspace,” Hester told reporters Sept. 25 at the Air Force Association’s 2007 Air and Space Conference and Technology Exposition. “The Singaporeans are asking us to do some descents over their territory as well.”
Hester said the Singaporeans have also asked if the Global Hawk could land at Changi International Airport in their country. However, he said, he is not sure if that will be possible, although PACAF is looking into it.
Northrop Grumman [NOC] leads the industry team supplying the Global Hawk, which cruises at altitudes above 60,000 feet and can stay aloft for more than one day unrefueled on a single mission. Raytheon [RTN] provides the aircraft’s electro-optical and infrared cameras and synthetic aperture radar, while Rolls-Royce builds the aircraft’s turbofan engine.
The Air Force program of record is for 54 Global Hawks in four configurations. The fleet will eventually replace the service’s U-2 High-altitude manned reconnaissance platforms (Defense Daily, April 11, 2006).
A Global Hawk prototype aircraft flew to Australia during a demonstration in 2001, and an RQ-4 operational aircraft traversed Pacific airspace last year, including passing over Japan, while returning from a combat stint in the Middle East to its home base at Beale AFB, Calif. But otherwise, PACAF does not yet have any Global Hawks and is not scheduled to receive the first of its seven dedicated air vehicles until 2009. The Air Force has concentrated its available Global Hawk air vehicles to date in the U.S. Central Command area of responsibility where they have logged thousands of hours supporting combat operations in Afghanistan and Iraq. Currently, there are three Global Hawks there.
Planning for the demonstration comes at the time that PACAF continues its efforts to build a consortium of Pacific nations to cooperate in the operation of the Global Hawk and the dissemination of its data once the aircraft comes to roost in the region (Defense Daily, Feb. 13, 2006). PACAF’s RQ-4s will be based at Andersen AFB, Guam. The full complement is expected to be in place there around 2014.
Building such an association of Pacific nations is a promising means of cultivating multilateral ties in area of the world that has traditionally lacked them, Hester has said (Defense Daily, Oct. 5, 2006).
“We have got about 10 countries [interested] and most of them are in the Southeast Asian arena,” Hester said on Sept. 25, noting eight of them by name: Australia, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, South Korea and Thailand.
The overall goal, he said, is to promote peace and stability in the Pacific by using the intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) capabilities resident on the Global Hawk to monitor borders and vital lines of communication, such as the shipping lanes of the Malaccan Straits, through which about half of the world’s oil flows daily.
Under the concept, the nations could work together to disseminate the Global Hawk’s imagery and support the flights of the aircraft so as to extend its loiter time and reach.
Singapore, for example, is building a new command-and control facility and has invited the United States to participate in it, Hester said.
“We are not very mature in that discussion as to what that means–whether we would have people permanently assigned, or would drop in there for missions, if you will, or for exercises,” he said. “But I could envision a day if you could get over a lot of hurdles between countries, where you would have an ISR center right there in Singapore for the Malaccan Straits.”
There, the participating nations could cooperatively staff the center and exploit the Global Hawk imagery to thwart piracy in the straits and safeguard their own borders, he said.
Some nations may also decide to offer the United States so-called “gas-‘n’-go” stops on their territory at which the Global Hawks could land and be refueled so that they could continue their journeys. Others may opt to host Global Hawk ground stations (Defense Daily, Sept. 23, 2005). Both of these would serve to extend the RQ-4’s reach into areas of the Indian Ocean, Hester has said.
“If we can work hard in the Pacific arena with ISR platforms,” he said during a panel discussion of the Air Force’s four-star generals on Sept. 25, “where we provide those eyes, ears–information–for decision makers, both military and political inside the respective countries, then they can find the ability to solve problems early as opposed to waiting until later when we have our guns drawn and we are pointing at each other.”
Hester said more discussions are needed to advance the concept, but added that he has been pleased to date with the exchanges of ideas with his Pacific counterparts.
Nations such as Australia, Japan, Singapore and South Korea may also acquire their own RQ-4s.
Hester has been unambiguous in saying he would welcome more Global Hawks for PACAF.
“To do what we are talking about and discussing in theory with the other countries, we need more platforms,” he said Sept. 25.
In addition to the Global Hawk, PACAF is interested in having the MQ-1 Predator medium-altitude unmanned aircraft system reside in the theater, Hester said. General Atomics Aeronautical Systems builds the medium-altitude, armed reconnaissance and surveillance platforms that have been used extensively in Afghanistan and Iraq. The demand is so high for them, in fact, that all of the Air Force’s available Predators are forward deployed to that region, making them unavailable elsewhere.
“We don’t have a program at the moment for bringing Predators out,” he said. “We are working our way through where we might be able to use Predators as a short-range piece of equipment in the Pacific.”
Hester said the command is exploring ideas that would allow Predators to be dispatched around the Pacific rapidly “with a very small footprint” via transport aircraft like the C-17.
After 37 years of service, Hester plans to retire before the end of the year (Defense Daily, May 1).