Northrop Grumman [NOC] has not been formally notified by the German government of plans to scrap its version of the Global Hawk unmanned aerial vehicle, a top executive said yesterday, adding the company was hopeful Berlin’s concerns about the program could be addressed.
Northrop Grumman has produced one Euro Hawk for the German Defense Ministry. That aircraft has been in ongoing flight tests in the country. According to reports by Bloomberg news and various German media, the Defense Ministry intends to cancel the $650 million program and will not purchase four additionally planned Euro Hawks.
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| The German Defense Ministry’s Euro Hawk. Photo by Northrop Grumman. |
“We received no formal feedback from the Germans on the Euro Hawk,” Tom Vice, the president of Northrop Grumman Aerospace Systems, told a handful of reporters at the company’s headquarters in Falls Church, Va.
The flight tests with the sensor suite on the high-altitude, long-endurance UAV have gone “very well” but the company was nevertheless “disappointed” by the press reports of cancellation, Vice said. He emphasized, however, that Northrop Grumman was still waiting to hear from the German government.
“We can’t speculate on any of that until we’ve had formal discussions with the Germans,” Vice said.
Some German media speculated that one of the reasons for cancellation was the high cost of certifying and authorizing the aircraft to fly over European airspace. Vice said he believed that issue could be addressed, pointing to the comprehensive airspace certification plan involving NATO’s intention to operate the alliance’s variant of Global Hawk.
“I am confident we can address that, but we haven’t entered that discussion yet” with Berlin, Vice said.
Euro Hawk is the first international variant of the U.S. Air Force’s Global Hawk, designed to conduct intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) missions. It can fly at altitudes reaching 60,000 feet and can stay aloft for more than 24 hours.
Northrop Grumman developed Euro Hawk in partnership with EADS Deutschland subsidiary Cassidian, which provides the ISR sensors.