Australian studies Global Hawk purchase

The RAAF will acquire a fleet of unmanned surveillance and reconnaissance aircraft in about 2004, Minister for Defence Peter Reith told senior officials and reporters at RAAF base Edinburgh on May 18. And the front runner for a contract worth up to $250 million is Northrop Grumman's Global Hawk.

An RQ-4A Global Hawk aircraft and USAF ground station and support crew were based at Edinburgh between April 23 and June 7. A joint RAAF, USAF and DSTO team have been using the aircraft to evaluate the utility of a high altitude, long endurance (HALE) unmanned air vehicle (UAV) such as Global Hawk as a surveillance asset both across northern Australia and over Australia's maritime approaches.

Scientists from DSTO's Surveillance Systems Division at Salisbury, SA, have worked with the USAF and Northrop Grumman to develop new operational modes for the aircraft's sensor suite, which includes electro-optic and IR sensors and Synthetic Aperture Radar, to enable it to detect maritime targets at sea and in littoral waters. The aircraft also participated in the joint US-Australian amphibious exercise Tandem Thrust in order to demonstrate its performance against a range of different target types and in both target-rich and target-poor environments.

"Australia's involvement with Global Hawk will not end at the completion of this deployment," Reith told an audience of senior Australian and US defence officials. "It marks the first phase of a project to provide this type of capability to bolster Australia's intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance capabilities. The Government intends to make a final decision on the acquisition - at a cost of between $100 and $250 million - in 2004/05. Between now and then, Defence will review the results of this trial and explore the available options to ensure we receive the best value for money."

"In the Defence White Paper released last year, the Government identified a comprehensive surveillance system as a key goal to provide continuous coverage of our extended air and sea approaches," he added. "The Government is committed to developing enhanced intelligence capabilities, particularly in relation to imagery collection, and deeper levels of cooperation with the US in a number of key systems. With the current Global Hawk deployment we are seeing that commitment in action. I look forward to seeing the results of this deployment included in those considerations."

No details of any potential sale have been discussed as yet, Willard Mitchell, US Air Force Assistant secretary for International Affairs, told ADM in Adelaide. But he endorsed Reith's comments, emphasising that the US-Australia alliance is a fundamental relationship for the US in the Asia-Pacific.

"This deployment exceeded the US Air Force's expectations of what could be achieved," Mitchell told ADM. The opportunity to carry out extended maritime surveillance missions was valuable, Mitchell said, as was the opportunity to download Global Hawk imagery direct to the US Navy carrier USS Kitty Hawk; this had never been done before, he said. Also, this was Global Hawk's first trip across the equator and into a region with a very different climate and environment, including atmospheric anomalies which can affect satellite systems and other electronics, Mitchell added.

"This deployment represents a major collaborative agreement between Australia and the US," Air Marshal Errol McCormack, Chief of Air Force, said at Edinburgh. "The US government has virtually given Australia an opportunity to do some work with Global Hawk and the chance to se how it might benefit Australia, particularly in coastal surveillance. The fact that the US agreed to this deployment is I think unique - it is representative of the special relationship Australia has with the US. DSTO has modified some of the [Global Hawk] sensors to make them more capable in the maritime environment. The US Navy, interestingly enough, is now interested in [exploiting the results of] that work," McCormack added.

Reith's announcement came as a surprise to Northrop Grumman. The company has not been granted a Technical Assistance Agreement (TAA) by the US government to conduct sales talks with the Australian government, Scott Seymour, a senior Northrop Grumman executive told ADM in Adelaide; the only TAA in place at present allows Northrop Grumman to support the current deployment, he said.

It isn't certain at this stage whether a future sale to Australia would be a commercial agreement or a Federal Military Sales (FMS) agreement, Seymour said; the company would also consider a Private Finance Initiative (PFI) deal, if Australia wanted to explore that option also.

The first deliveries of production Global Hawk aircraft to the USAF are scheduled for 2003; at the currently planned production rate of two aircraft per year it is unlikely that Global Hawk can be built for the USAF's 1994 goal of US$10 million each, sources said. The company declined to speculate on exactly how many aircraft and ground stations Australia might require.

Senior RAAF sources at Edinburgh said it would take some time to develop a concept of operations and settle on an operational configuration for an HAE UAV. One of the issues to be settled would be the integration of Global Hawk into an overarching surveillance architecture for Australia which ensures that all of the assets employed are mutually supporting and tasked efficiently by an effective command and control structure.

Reith declined to confirm that Global Hawk itself was Australia's favoured surveillance UAV, but RAAF sources point out there are no competitors to Global Hawk available in the timeframe Reith announced.

"We are looking very seriously at buying the Global Hawk," Reith told reporters at Edinburgh. "At the moment we are doing the evaluation. We think it's a fantastic piece of equipment. It could be very good for effective surveillance of Australia's coastal areas and so we have got some money aside under the White Paper to purchase the Global Hawk or something very close to it. That's a decision to be made in two or three years time. But we are certainly seriously looking at it so you might be seeing more of the Global Hawk in Australian skies."

Northrop Grumman's Global Hawk program manager, Carl Johnson, told ADM that the USAF has expressed significant interest in the Australian-developed modifications to Global Hawk, especially the maritime surveillance capabilities and the ability to employ the International Maritime Organisation's INMARSAT satellite for command and control over the open ocean.

The company believes Global Hawk, with its new maritime surveillance capabilities, could provide an important Broad Area Maritime Surveillance (BAMS) capability for the US Navy to support its future maritime patrol aircraft fleet, whether this consists of upgraded P-3 Orions or a new Multi-Mission Aircraft. The Australian deployment supports Northrop Grumman's case for using Global Hawk in the BAMS role, Johnson said.

By Gregor Ferguson, Adelaide