Euro Hawk Takes Flight

The Euro Hawk is en route to Manching, Germany, following a weather-related delay to its ferry flight plan.

Northrop Grumman officials said they were forced to move the Euro Hawk flight from its original departure date of July 18 to July 20. The aircraft, a Northrop-built variant of the RQ-4B Global Hawk that carries a European Aeronautic Defence and Space Co.-made signals intelligence (SIGINT) sensor package, departed from Edwards Air Force Base, CA, today at about 2 a.m. Pacific Standard Time, according to a Northrop spokeswoman. It is expected to touch down at Manching Air Base on Thursday, July 21 at approximately 10 a.m. Central European Summer Time.

The flight is part of the demonstrator aircraft's trial run while it undergoes an evaluation by the German government. Following the successful completion of that evaluation, the German government intends to procure a separate contract for the four Euro Hawk SIGNIT systems, which will cover four air vehicles and one complete set of ground stations, the Northrop spokeswoman said. The contract for those four Euro Hawks will be awarded following a system demonstration in Germany, she added.

German acquisition policy requires the purchase of the full-scale Euro Hawk demonstrator system before contracting for production systems, according to a Northrop spokeswoman who provided information on the acquisition in a July 13 email. German military officials spent last week hammering out the details of a Euro Hawk purchase that would net them the four additional aircraft over the next five or six years years, according to an industry source familiar with the program.

In 2007, the German defense ministry signed a contract for the development of the aircraft. That contract, valued at close to $550 million, was for the development, test and support of one Euro Hawk SIGINT mission system. The contract covers aircraft modifications, mission control and launch and recovery ground segments and the development and integration of a national SIGINT sensor suite, as well as flight test and logistics support, according to the spokeswoman.