Euro Hawk

Euro Hawk builds upon the RQ-4 Block 20 Global Hawk high altitude, long endurance Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) and it is being developed to meet the surveillance and reconnaissance needs of the German Armed Forces. In 2003, the Luftwaffe (German Air Force) identified Euro Hawk as the potential replacement for the Breguet Atlantic aircraft fleet by 2010. On November 3, 2005, Northrop-Grumman and EADS founded EuroHawk GmbH 50/50 joint venture based in Immenstaad, Germany, for the development, manufacture and sustainment of Euro Hawk. EADS will supply the aircraft's SIGINT mission system and the ground control station while Northrop-Grumman will supply the airframe. The SIGINT payload allows detection of radar emitters (ELINT) and communications emitters (COMINT). Euro Hawk features a wingspan larger than an Airbus A320 airliner, an operational ceiling of 20,000 meters and a flight endurance of over 30 hours. The Euro Hawk Unmanned Aerial Vehicle has a top speed of 555 kilometer-per-hour. The German government signed the Euro Hawk risk reduction contract in autumn 2006. Initial Operational Capability (IOC) and series production approval are expected by 2009. On February 1, 2007, the German Ministry of Defense awarded EuroHawk GmbH a 430 million Euro contract for the development, test and support of the Euro Hawk unmanned signals intelligence (SIGINT) system. The first demonstrator system was scheduled for delivery to the Luftwaffe in 2010. Thereafter, four Euro Hawks would be delivered between 2011 and 2014. On May 14, 2013, the German government cancelled the 1 billion Euro unmanned Euro Hawk program due to the high cost of flying them over European airspace. The program cancellation cost is estimated at 250 million Euro. One aircraft already delivered will be retained for testing.

deagel.com: https://www.deagel.com/x/x/a000556