American drones "Global Hawk" will control Europe and Africa
At one time in the novel "Battlefield - Earth" (his film adaptation was later produced by John Travolta, who played the role of the main alien villain in the movie), Ron Hubbard described the future of humanity, "crushed by the fifth alien invaders." Moreover, the observation of the enslaved earthlings was carried out with the help of high-altitude unmanned aerial vehicles, which continuously and in real time transmitted a picture of the terrain in the controlled areas to the control post.
BASE IN SICILY
And now, it seems, in the very near future - albeit partially, and without the intervention of aliens from outer space - this plot will begin to come true. According to the promulgated plans of the US Air Force command, starting in 2011, it is planned to start regular, and quite possibly permanent patrolling of the airspace and territories of Europe and Africa using strategic high-altitude UAVs of the Global Hawk type.
Observer drone units will be deployed at a new base being created by the US Air Force for its unmanned aerial systems on the island of Sicily, on the territory of the Italian Air Force Sigonella. Today, the aircraft of the basic patrol aviation, the Italian Atlantic and the American Orion, take off and land here, flying over the Mediterranean Sea.
This decision is the next stage of a long-term program being implemented by the US Air Force command in the direction of expanding the area of operations of the Global Hawk UAV. So far, thanks to these high-altitude drones, constant monitoring of the regions of the Arabian Sea and the Persian Gulf has been organized. In addition, from the Beal Air Force Base in California, drones carry out reconnaissance flights over Latin America in the interests of the United States Southern Command (for example, on January 13, 2010, the Global Hawk, which took off from Beal, photographed areas of Haiti affected by the devastating earthquake). However, even before the squadron begins to work in Sicily, a similar unit of the Global Hawk UAV, formed at the Guam air force base, must reach a state of initial operational readiness.
During 2010, it is planned to finally complete work on the preparation of the Sigonella base and transfer there three drones, 66 US Air Force personnel and 40 civilian contract soldiers, who will be responsible for the logistics of the detachment's activities. To date, an agreement in principle has been reached with the leadership of the Italian Ministry of Defense on the deployment of up to four Global Hawk Block 30 UAVs in Sicily. In the future, the possibility of replacing these drones with a Block 40 modification is not ruled out.
"According to the approved action plan, unmanned aerial vehicles should arrive at the base by October 2010, then preparatory flights will be carried out, operators will study the routes and the theater of operations as a whole, after which, at the beginning of 2011, we will begin to carry out operational (combat) tasks," Lt. Col. Ricky Thomas, one of the leaders of the Global Hawk UAV development and maintenance program from the US Air Force, emphasized in an interview with the American weekly Defense Weekly.
According to US Air Force officials, the unmanned squadron stationed at the Sigonella Air Force Base will be operatively subordinate to the head of the US European Command and will be primarily involved in solving the tasks assigned to this command. but also missions for the benefit of the US Africa Command.
MONSTER KING
The choice of the RQ-4 Global Hawk UAV as the main means of conducting aerial reconnaissance and surveillance, including in the zone of Europe and Africa, is by no means accidental. Today this drone with a wingspan of 39.9 m can be called without exaggeration the actual uncrowned "king of drones". The device has a takeoff weight of about 14.5 tons and carries a payload of more than 1300 kilograms. He is able to stay in the air without landing or refueling for up to 36 hours, while maintaining a speed of about 570 kilometers per hour. The ferry range of the UAV exceeds 22 thousand kilometers.
According to experts from the Northrop Grumman development company, the Global Hawk can cover the distance from Sigonella VVB to Johannesburg and back at one filling station. At the same time, the drone has characteristics that are truly unique for an air spy and controller. It is able, for example, to collect information using a wide range of special equipment installed on board - a synthetic beam aperture radar (developed by Raytheon), a combined optoelectronic / infrared reconnaissance system AAQ-16, an electronic reconnaissance system LR-100, other means. At the same time, the Global Hawk UAVs are equipped with a set of navigation and communication equipment that allows the drones of this family to efficiently solve the tasks assigned to them (each drone has satellite communication and navigation systems, radio communication systems, data exchange systems, etc.).).
The operation of RQ-4 Global Hawk devices of various modifications turned out to be so effective that military leaders from the commands of other branches of the US armed forces and representatives of the defense departments of a number of foreign countries drew attention to these drones. One of the first to decide to adapt the Global Hawk drones for their needs was the leadership of the American Navy: as part of a production contract with the United States Air Force, two RQ-4A drones were purchased, which received the distinctive designation RQ-4 Block 10. The first strategic drone entered the disposal of the American military fleet in 2004, and the second in March 2006. A comparative analysis of the results of the combat use in the Persian Gulf zone of their manned reconnaissance aircraft and E-2C Hawkeye AWACS and the use of the Global Hawk and Predator UAVs by the American Air Force prompted the US Navy admirals to take this step.
ASSISTANT "POSEIDON"
However, the United States Navy purchased two RQ-4A drones just for naval testing and use as demonstrators of the capabilities of this class of aircraft. The series will include a drone that won, according to the heads of the US Department of the Navy, a tender for a "naval reconnaissance UAV" (BAMS - Broad Area Maritime Surveillance). And it was a slightly modernized version of the same "Global Hawk", the main purpose of which the American admirals determined to conduct reconnaissance and issue target designation data, as well as to monitor the territorial waters and the exclusive economic zone of the state.
At the same time, overseas naval commanders presented the following main requirements to their promising drone:
- providing all-round visibility for onboard radar and other means of reconnaissance and surveillance;
- the ability to control the designated area at a distance of 2000 miles (about 3700 km) from the base of the vehicles using no more than three UAVs, each of which must be in the "working" zone for at least 80% of its maximum flight duration (about 24 hours);
- the ability to reach any patrol point within no more than 10 hours;
- the drone is controlled from a ground or ship command post.
In addition, the drone must have the ability to descend to a height "below the cloud zone" - to monitor shipping using a combined optoelectronic / infrared system.
The model chosen by the US Navy was created by the specialists of the Northrop Grumman company on the basis of the RQ-4B Block 20. The drone received the designation RQ-4N from the developers. The target load intended for a sea-based high-altitude UAV will presumably include a multifunctional radar (manufactured by Northrop Grumman, tested on board the R-3 Orion flight laboratory), a combined optoelectronic / infrared system Nighthunter II (also developed by Northrop Grumman ", tested on the WB-57 aircraft) and the communication / data exchange system, which was" run-in "on the modified Gulfstream II aircraft.
The new RQ-4N radar is similar in capabilities to the U-2 spy plane's radar, according to Edd Walby, an employee of Northrop Grumman's unmanned aerial vehicle and equipment unit. “With it, you can survey in a wide swath, conduct surveillance in a certain lane, as well as perform 'pinpoint' reconnaissance,” says Walby.
Moreover, the avionics of the marine "Global Hawk" differs from the same equipment on unmanned aerial vehicles of this type, operated by the US Air Force, in a greater degree of efficiency and manufacturability. In fact, a significant portion of the payload of the RQ-4N is completely different from the base version of the Global Hawk used to create it. In particular, if the US Air Force uses a system based on a commercial satellite communication line of the Ku band to control drones, then American sailors have relied on the Wideband Gapfiller satellite, which provides communication lines in the Ka band, which is more suitable for monitoring systems. drone flights over extended water spaces. In addition, the RQ-4N / BAMS will be equipped with a 16-channel radio station and data exchange systems operating in the Ka and X bands and designed to provide information transfer between these UAVs, P-8A Poseidon multipurpose patrol aircraft, and other aircraft and ships and vessels of the US Navy. All this, according to American naval experts, will allow the United States fleets to constantly receive valuable intelligence information in real time.
The declared cost of the RQ-4N design phase is $ 2.3 billion, and serial production - $ 4 billion. The first naval Global Hawk is expected to take off in 2011, by 2013 the drones should reach the state of initial operational readiness, then as the first of five planned units will be similarly prepared and will begin patrolling in 2015.
STRANGE INTENTIONS
“We will not carry out flights of unmanned aerial vehicles over the territory of any state without obtaining special permission for that,” Lt. Col. Ricky Thomas emphasized in an interview with reporters. However, it is not entirely clear why, in this case, even start this whole project, build a base for drones, transfer expensive and by no means idle UAVs, hundreds of military and civilian specialists to it? Since it is not known whether they will all be provided with work …
Of course, in Europe, special problems are unlikely to arise with permission to fly - after all, almost all countries of the Old World are either NATO allies or intend to join the North Atlantic Alliance. And the detachment will obey the command of the unit indirectly. However, on the European continent, the Americans may have some disagreements with individual states. But how the Pentagon and the State Department are going to persuade the leaders of African states to give the go-ahead to stay over their heads overseas reconnaissance drones is completely incomprehensible.
It is unlikely, for example, that Colonel Gaddafi in his right mind will decide to accept such an offer and agree that American drones patrol the territory of Libya. The same can be said about Algeria and a number of other countries of the Black Continent, which are by no means friendly to the United States. But it is precisely these "unreliable" states that are of primary interest to Washington. In short, a seemingly prudent, forward-looking and promising project loses all meaning.
Moreover, until now, the Americans have not even been able to agree with the Italians the air corridors that will be used by the Sigonella-based Global Hawks for takeoff and landing (on the other hand, there is already a special air corridor for flights in the southern coast of the country Italian UAVs "Predator"). And although US Air Force officials assure that a positive solution to this issue is just a matter of time, there is a clear threat that the entire program will go into a tailspin. After all, if for so long it has not been possible to remove such a "trifling" problem from the agenda and agree with the country on whose territory the American unmanned air squadron is to be based, then what efforts will Washington have to make in order to achieve agreement on flights of Pentagon drones in the airspace of states? members of the NATO bloc and sometimes even "somewhat unfriendly" looking to the West?
However, Washington can do what it did for many previous decades: ignore all norms of international law and send Global Hawks on reconnaissance flights over other countries without asking permission from their leaders. Let us recall that it was precisely "concern for the security of the Western world" that the President of the United States, Dwight D. Eisenhower, justified the raids of American U-2 spy planes in the airspace of the Soviet Union. Then only the combat crew of the Soviet anti-aircraft missile system could put an end to it - after that the "noble mission" was immediately terminated.
DRONE HUB
Located in a very convenient place - what is called the crossroads between Europe and Africa, the air force base in Sicily makes it possible to most effectively organize with the help of high-altitude strategic reconnaissance control over the situation in the Mediterranean theater of operations and in the adjacent regions. Last but not least, it was on the basis of these considerations that the Sigonella was chosen by the command of the United States Air Force and Navy, the leadership of the NATO Allied Forces as an airfield for the Global Hawks. In particular, the US naval forces have already made a fundamental decision to deploy their drones here, created under the BAMS program. At the same base, NATO command intends to deploy all its promising eight Global Hawk UAV Block 40, which plans to use drones in the Alliance Ground Surveillance program (AGS / Alliance Ground Surveillance). Moreover, the employees of Northrop Grumman have already stated that after the formation of an unmanned squadron at the Sigonella VVB, a representative office of the company will definitely be opened there (several specialists of the company are actively participating in the work to create conditions for the deployment of strategic UAVs at the Sigonella VVB). This will make it possible to more quickly resolve various issues and introduce the latest developments on their on-board systems on the drones deployed on the Sigonella.
According to the information disseminated by the American command, at the first stage, the control of the Global Hawk drones performing tasks should be carried out by operators who are already at the previously mentioned Californian Air Force Base Beal, and personnel at the Sigonella Air Force Base will be responsible only for take-off operations and landing devices. If the Global Hawk Block 40 UAV equipped with specialized MPRTIP ground-based reconnaissance radars are sent to Sicily, then specialists at the command post located at the Grand Forks Air Force Base (North Dakota) will take over the operational control of these drones.
However, by the time the unmanned base in Sicily is put into operation, only strategic high-altitude UAVs of the Global Hawk family belonging to the US Air Force will be ready to use it for its intended purpose. The first unit of drones, created on the basis of "Global Hawk" under the American naval program BAMS, as mentioned above, will reach the state of initial operational readiness no earlier than 2015. And eight UAVs of the Global Hawk type, intended for a joint NATO air reconnaissance detachment (AGS program), can be delivered to the customer from the assembly line of the manufacturer only 3-4 years after the conclusion of the relevant intergovernmental agreements and production contracts.
The headquarters of the North Atlantic Alliance expects that these documents will be signed by the end of summer 2010 at the latest, but they do not rule out that the process of their agreement may be delayed. The latter is very likely, since the positions on a number of issues among the countries participating in the AGS program, and there are exactly 15 of them, sometimes differ quite seriously. Moreover, the final decision on the basing of the UAVs involved in this program will be made only after the official launch of the program itself, the settlement of various technical issues and the conclusion of all production contracts with the main contractor and subcontractors.
But if everything goes according to the developed plans, a unique base of strategic high-altitude drones will appear at the Sigonella VVB, a real hub for the Global Hawks. This will significantly increase the capabilities of the US Armed Forces and the NATO Allied Forces to conduct reconnaissance in Europe, the Mediterranean Sea and on the African continent.
