Read the forum code of contact
By: - 25th January 2004 at 10:05 Permalink - Edited 1st January 1970 at 01:00
wow! thats a nice tool to have in any inventory.
Read the forum code of contact
By: - 25th January 2004 at 10:05 Permalink - Edited 1st January 1970 at 01:00
wow! thats a nice tool to have in any inventory.
Posts: 12,842
By: steve rowell - 25th January 2004 at 09:44
The RQ-4A Global Hawk UAV has proven its value during an 18 day period at the start of Operation Iraqi Freedom by flying every day to provide ground and air commanders with almost continuous coverage of Republican Guard positions and other target information.
Although still not declared operational and with only one Global Hawk prototype development aircraft available in early 2003 as the war in Iraq drew near, that lone aircraft was deployed to Iraq to support the Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance (ISR) effort with its synthetic aperture radar (SAR) and electro-optical & infrared (EO/IR) sensor packages.
Air Vehicle 3 (AV3) arrived in the gulf region on March 8 and almost immediately flew three missions to help determine Iraqi air defence SAM positions and possible Scud missile launch sites.
During the early phases of the war, AV3 flew reconnaissance missions over Republican Guard positions about three hours prior to air strikes in order to identify vehicle and dug in force positions. The UAV was controlled from Beale AFB in California, and the imagery was interpreted and analysed at an Air National Guard (ANG) base in Nevada before being collated and transmitted back to forward deployed forces getting ready for the attack, and even straight to E-3 AWACS aircraft orbiting over southern Iraq for direct transmission to F-15, F-16, AC-130, B-1B or B-2 strike aircraft in the air via Link-16 datalinks.
AV3 returned home to Edwards AFB on May 5. During its eight week deployment it took 3655 sensor images (SAR, EO and IR), identifying 300+ enemy tanks, 13 SAM batteries, 300+ SAM canisters and 70+ SAM transporters.