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First successful flight of EADS reconnaissance electronics on board Global Hawk unmanned air vehicle

Friedrichshafen/El Segundo, 27 January 2003

EADS and Northrop Grumman have expanded their transatlantic co-operation in the defence business. The first successful demonstration of an EADS electronic intelligence (ELINT) sensor could be conducted on board a U.S. Air Forces’ Global Hawk aircraft (RQ-4A) developed and built by Northrop Grumman Integrated Systems. As reported by EADS on monday, the demonstration and flights test were conducted by officials of the U.S. Air Force and the German Defence Ministry on the Edwards Air Force Base, California, at the end of 2002.

The flight test team of the Edwards Air Force Base demonstrated the ELINT sensor’s ability to reliably disseminate the collected data from the unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) to the ground station via data link. This successful test was to prepare the Global Hawk ELINT demonstration scheduled for spring 2003 in Germany. “EADS and Northrop Grumman started the EuroHawk initiative two and a half years ago. We are proud to see how far this project has progressed since and we are proud of our teams and their great work. EuroHawk is fully supported by the U.S. and German Air Forces and it will play a pivotal role in the future European ISR architecture, including the recently launched NATO Airborne Ground Surveillance program” said Dr. Thomas Enders, Head of the EADS Defence & Civil Systems Division. The Northrop Grumman/EADS system concept for EuroHawk is based on Global Hawk in order to meet the urgent German demand for airborne, long-range reconnaissance and surveillance. EuroHawk is being developed to replace the Breguet Atlantic 1150 intelligence system (signal detection) which is to be phased out by the German armed forces starting in 2008.

The system will be designed for high altitudes and long flight times for stand-off reconnaissance and surveillance. Furthermore, a ground station for data evaluation will be developed for this reconnaissance system to meet German operational requirements. The companies plan the feasibility of data exchange with different systems for the German armed forces, NATO and EU. Possible missions, such as sea surveillance or civil environmental tasks, could be considered already in the system design.

With revenues of 30.8 billion euros and a workforce of more than 100,000 employees, EADS is a leading aerospace and defence company and the second largest company of this industry. It is one of the market leaders in defence technology, civil aviation, helicopters, space technology, military transport and combat aircraft, as well as related services. Northrop Grumman Integrated Systems, based in El Segundo, California, is a leading aerospace systems company. Integrated Systems has the capabilities for the design, development, integration, production and support of complete systems, as well as aircraft sub-systems, for airborne surveillance and battlement management, early warning, airborne electronic warfare and combat aircraft.

Friedrichshafen, January 27/00303

For further information:

Business Unit Systems & Defence Electronics
Michael Hartwig, Tel: +49 (0) 7545 8-9124, Fax –8-5888
E-Mail: michael.hartwig@dornier.eads.net