Northrop Grumman on June 4 rolled out the first of five RQ-4B Global Hawk unmanned surveillance aircraft it will deliver under the NATO Alliance Ground Surveillance (AGS) program. NATO expects to begin operating the aircraft from Sigonella Air Base, Italy, in 2017.
The NATO Alliance Ground Surveillance Management Agency (Nagsma) awarded Northrop Grumman a $1.7 billion prime contract to supply the AGS system in May 2012. Industrial partners from the 15 nations Nagsma represents, including Airbus Defence and Space in Germany, Italy’s Selex ES and Norway’s Kongsberg, are providing the system’s ground element, consisting of fixed and mobile ground stations.
Capable of flying for 30 hours, the modified Block 40 Global Hawk will carry the Multi-Platform Radar Technology Insertion Program (MP-RTIP) electronically scanned radar Northrop Grumman developed with Raytheon, and a suite of data links. The NATO AGS system will be able to fuse sensor data, continuously detect and track moving objects and provide detailed imagery, the manufacturer said.
Northrop Grumman built the NATO-1 aircraft fuselage at its facility in Moss Point, Mississippi; the wing was constructed by Triumph Aerostructures-Vought Aircraft Division in Dallas. It mated the wing and fuselage at its facility in Palmdale, California, where the rollout ceremony was held.
The milestone “marks a significant step forward in achieving NATO’s goal of acquiring NATO-owned and -operated AGS core capability,” said Erling Wang, chairman of the supervising NATO AGS Management Organization. Nagsma is the organization’s executive body.