RQ-4 Global Hawk Modernized Ground Segment Comes in From the Cold
By Brooks McKinney
Since 2001, when the U.S. Air Force deployed the Northrop Grumman-developed RQ-4 Global Hawk — a high-altitude, long-endurance unmanned aircraft system— Air Force pilots and payload sensor operators have been managing the aircraft's intel-gathering activities from a legacy ground system. This has been a less-than-ideal condition for the operators and technology based on early 2000’s computing capabilities with limits to functionality.
But that's all changing under the company's Ground Segment Modernization Program (GSMP) contract with the Air Force.
"One of the primary benefits of GSMP is to get operators out of those jammed ground stations into a modern system," explained Stan Zipper, Northrop Grumman's program director for Global Hawk development. "This modernization program provides an opportunity to replace the aging hardware and software technology from the legacy ground control systems."
Loading component...
Loading component...
Loading component...
Adding Modularity and Flexibility with Open Architecture
The modernized ground segment also features a more modern approach to hardware and software, explained Zipper. "We're using a modular, COTS (commercial-off-the-shelf)-based open architecture that will make the ground segment easier to reconfigure, easier to maintain and easier to extend or update with new capabilities," he said.
The new software also includes algorithms that automate the payload collections and mission-planning processes — two examples of digital transformation activities that were previously performed manually by ground operators.
