Air Force awards contract for new BACN-equipped Global Hawk

Northrop Grumman last week won a nearly $40 million contract to build another Global Hawk equipped to work with the Battlefield Airborne Communications Node system, designated the EQ-4B, according to Federal Business Opportunities.

A May 5 FBO notice stated the $39.9 million contract began May 3.

This EQ-4B will bring the Air Force's operational total to four such remotely piloted aircraft, after another crashed in 2011. Inside Defense reported in January the RPA will be outfitted with antennas, radomes, cables and more to share data between air and ground platforms that cannot see each other in theater.

The BACN-equipped Global Hawks flew more than 10,000 hours during an average of 30 missions each month in 2016 -- comprising nearly half of all Global Hawk flight hours last year, former Air Force spokesman Capt. Mike Hertzog told Inside Defense in January. No growth in the EQ-4B program is currently planned and there are “no near-term plans” to start a program of record for BACN.