The Global Hawk UAV Australian deployment: imaging radar sensor modifications and employment for maritime surveillance

Abstract

The Global Hawk system is a high altitude endurance unmanned aerial vehicle developed under the United States Air Force Advanced Concept Demonstrator program primarily as a reconnaissance system for use against fixed and mobile targets. The Global Hawk system deployed to Australia in April 2001 for six weeks and in this period conducted 11 missions with the focus on maritime surveillance. The Australian deployment was the culmination of two years collaboration between the United States and Australia that included modifications to the radar sensor, system control and exploitation to support a surveillance focus. This paper presents aspects of the Australian contribution to the Global Hawk deployment including the rationale behind the sensor modifications and employment that achieved a surveillance capability with a system primarily designed for land reconnaissance.