Global Hawk high-altitude unmanned aerial vehicles will soon be flying three times a week at Beale AFB, Calif., Ed Walby of Northrop Grumman said in Washington Tuesday. The 9th Reconnaissance Wing at Beale currently flies the Global Hawk twice a week, performing multiple sorties, he said during a briefing at the Unmanned Systems Symposium and Exhibition. Northrop is working on fielding Block 40 Global Hawks, but he said if the full Congress passes a proposed 2008 program reduction, there would be a delay. “That would delay a lot … it would delay fielding Block 40, and it would probably delay the second main operating base,” Walby asserted, referring to Grand Forks, AFB, N.D., where the Air National Guard’s 119th Wing would operate the large UAV in addition to the Predator UAV. “The Air Force has chosen Grand Forks as a Block 40 location,” he explained, adding that the cut would delay the program by at least a year.
United Launch Alliance’s new Vulcan Centaur rocket is slated to fly its second national security mission in February—nearly six months after its first operational launch and almost a year after it was certified to fly military payloads for the Space Force.
