The Navy's RQ-4A Global Hawk Maritime Demonstration (GHMD) system, made its first entry into Hawaiian skies when it participated in the Rim of the Pacific, or RIMPAC exercise in July.

RIMPAC is a major maritime exercise conducted in the waters off Hawaii, this year from June 26 through July 28. RIMPAC 2006 brought together military forces from Australia, Canada, Chile, Peru, Japan, the Republic of Korea, the United Kingdom and the United States.

For the GHMD participation in RIMPAC, the aircraft was based at Edwards Air Force Base, California. Operations in Hawaiian airspace demanded a flight of roughly 2,500 miles each way to reach the operating areas, a task that fully exercised the range and endurance of both the aircraft and its crew. Flight crews from test squadron VX-20, which operates the GHMD aircraft for Naval Air Systems Command PMA-263, were reinforced by personnel from the USAF's 452nd Flight Test Squadron for the flights.

In four flights, for nearly 100 hours of flight time, the GHMD aircraft explored the use of high-altitude, long-endurance unmanned aircraft, and provided over 24 hours of persistent, maritime surveillance in a variety of scenarios to Coalition Forces, Maritime Component Commander, located in Hawaii as well as to the USS Abraham Lincoln and USS Bonhome Richard. The tasks performed by GHMD included maintenance of maritime situational awareness, tracking of contacts of interest, and imagery support for amphibious and strike operations - precisely the kinds of tasks that the Navy frequently must perform in defense of the United States.

The lessons learned from GHMD operations are providing invaluable support for the Navy's future unmanned maritime surveillance program, the Broad Area Maritime Surveillance (BAMS) system. These lessons include analyzing the effects of available time-on-station following delays en-route to a distant area of responsibility, and the associated consequences in a dynamic coalition maritime environment.

Throughout RIMPAC, imagery and tracks from the GHMD aircraft were transmitted to Naval Air Station, Patuxent River, Maryland, where they were analyzed by a team from Navy squadrons VX-20, VX-1, and VC-6 and forwarded to exercise participants in Hawaii - a round trip of 10,000 miles, not including the great distance involved in the satellite links. “The ability of the GHMD system to accomplish this is a great demonstration of the kind of network-centric warfighting capability that will form the core of the Navy's future capabilities,” said Dave Seagle, Navy lead for GHMD.

The GHMD aircraft, manufactured by Northrop-Grumman, is a variant of the USAF RQ-4A Global Hawk used since 2001 to support operations in Afghanistan and Iraq. With a wingspan of 116 feet, a length of 44 feet, and a gross weight of 25,600 lbs, the Global Hawk is the largest unmanned aircraft in service. It is also one of the most capable, operating at altitudes in excess of 60,000 ft for over 30 hours. Sensors on the GHMD aircraft include a radar with maritime search, synthetic aperture, and inverse synthetic aperture capabilities; an electronic camera operating in both the visible light and infrared spectra, and an electronic support measures system.

This year's RIMPAC exercise was the twentieth in a series of exercises conducted since 1971. Over 40 ships, six submarines, 160 aircraft and almost 19,000 Sailors, Airmen, Marines, Soldiers and Coastguardsmen participated in RIMPAC training operations. RIMPAC is intended to enhance the tactical proficiency of participating units in a wide array of combined operations at sea. By enhancing interoperability, RIMPAC helps to promote stability in the Pacific Rim region to the benefit of all participating nations. This year's exercise included a variety of surface combatant ships, submarines, tactical aircraft, and amphibious forces. The United States THIRD Fleet, Commanded by Vice Admiral Barry Costello, was responsible for overall exercise coordination.

The Navy’s UAS program office is completing it’s Persistent Unmanned Maritime Airborne Surveillance (PUMAS) broad agency announcement (BAA), which is intended to solicit industry’s inputs in mapping the way forward for the Navy’s UAS family of systems, including BAMS. PUMAS, combined with GHMD’s active role the Navy’s Sea Trial events, has afforded the Navy valuable insight into a variety of capabilities that contribute to the Navy’s overall UAS missions in support of Naval and Marine forces afloat.