Grand Forks Welcomes Global Hawk

Audio of this article is brought to you by the Air & Space Forces Association, honoring and supporting our Airmen, Guardians, and their families. Find out more at afa.org

Airmen at Grand Forks AFB, N.D., gathered with local community leaders and industry representatives to celebrate the arrival of the first Northrop Grumman RQ-4 Global Hawk remotely piloted aircraft at the base. “What a great day for Grand Forks and North Dakota—this is cutting-edge technology,” said Maj. Gen. Thomas Andersen, Air Combat Command’s requirements director, during Wednesday’s ceremony. The event marked the start of a new era there after the base’s KC-135 tanker mission concluded last December after 50 years. A Global Hawk Block 20 flew in from Beale AFB, Calif., last week for the ceremony, but only the Block 40 model, which carries the sophisticated Northrop-Raytheon MP-RTIP radar, will be stationed there. The first Block 40 aircraft could arrive by July, reported the Grand Forks Herald. The high-flying Global Hawk RPA is optimized for intelligence-surveillance-reconnaissance. (Grand Forks report by Amn. Derek Van Horn) (Northrop release)

Audio of this article is brought to you by the Air & Space Forces Association, honoring and supporting our Airmen, Guardians, and their families. Find out more at afa.org