The lone Global Hawk flying above Iraq was one busy, busy bird. Eyes Wide Open

By Rebecca Grant

HE US Air Force dispatched more What Global Hawk Did than 600 fighters, , tankers, in the War airlifters, and intelligence-surveil- lance- aircraft to Op- eration Iraqi Freedom. In the pack All told, the RQ-4 aircraft snapped Twas one loner: the RQ-4 Global Hawk 3,655 images using all sensors . The Air (, infrared, and electro-optical). These images helped locate and Force deployed to the theater just identify the following: one Global Hawk and flew it 18 days in a row to provide unblinking cov- ● 300+ . erage of the Republican Guard and other key targets. ● 13 full SAM batteries. The performance of this aircraft over Iraq drew praise from all quar- ● 50+ individual SAM launch- ters and marked a significant step ers. forward for long-range, high-altitude ● 300+ SAM canisters. unmanned reconnaissance. The 1991 dramatized ● 70+ SAM transporters. the possibilities of real-time imag- ery. The Desert Storm coalition ac- quired tremendous situation aware- ness from new assets such as E-8 Joint STARS aircraft, but there were gaps in ISR coverage of the battle- space. Commanders wanted a plat- form that would provide 24-hour coverage to support the hunt for Scuds and help keep track of Iraqi forces. That new requirement in 1991 led directly to the presence of

38 AIR FORCE Magazine / November 2003 Global Hawk in the skies over Iraq In the early 1980s, the Defense emy surface-to-air missiles and in 2003. Advanced Research Projects Agency fighters. The Defense Science Board’s began managing secret UAV pro- DARPA was the executive agent 1993 summer study called on the grams. One was Amber, a CIA-di- for the initial phases of the high- Pentagon to spur development of rected project that became the father altitude UAV demonstration pro- UAVs. This, it said, would help “fix of today’s Predator UAV. DARPA, gram, one of the first efforts in a new the problems exposed in Desert however, was on the lookout for a DOD plan to speed technology to the Storm.” The DSB said the use of “different, new, advanced technol- warfighter. reconnaissance UAVs would help ogy that would revolutionize ISR,” Fourteen companies submitted pro- US forces gain wide-area coverage, said John Entzminger, who was a posals. In May 1995, Ryan’s Global acquire all-weather access to the director of DARPA’s Tactical Tech- Hawk was announced as the winner battlespace, and integrate combat nology Office in the 1980s. of Tier II+. Airframe designer Al- information. “Long endurance, persistence— fredo Ramirez had already sketched The challenge was to create a new those kinds of things were in our out the distinctive “swoopy curves” type of craft, one that would build on mind at the time,” said Entzminger, and long wingspan of Global Hawk. the experience gained from decades who added that the question was, Now, engineers drew on proven tech- of operating remotely piloted ve- “Why does the man have to be there nologies to build Global Hawk, shoot- hicles—or drones—and experimen- in something which is going to stay ing for effectiveness, affordability, tal high-altitude vehicles. up for 24 hours?” and ease of maintenance. Drones had done yeoman’s work DARPA organized its unmanned Less than three years later, on Feb. in Vietnam. The Firebee drone was aerial vehicle research projects on 28, 1998, air vehicle-1 (or AV-1) launched from a mothership such the basis of planned performance. made its first flight at Edwards AFB, as a C-130 and guided by remote One such grouping—known as “Tier Calif. Program management shifted control. The Firebees streaked over II”—contained two very different from DARPA to the Air Force in targets at low altitude, snapping aircraft: medium-altitude (Tier II) October 1998, and, a month later, pictures of downtown Hanoi, puls- and high-altitude (Tier II+). They AV-2 made its maiden flight. Dur- ing electronic countermeasures, and were to be complementary, provid- ing a March 1999 test flight of AV-2, dropping leaflets. On their return, ing a low/high mix of forces. controllers mistakenly sent a signal would snag them with The high-altitude UAV was to to terminate flight, causing the UAV hooks. Although loss rates were merge responsive, long-duration to crash. It was a total loss. In May, fairly high, one drone, nicknamed tactical reconnaissance with the after a short safety review, AV-1 Tom Cat, flew 68 missions. wide-area and highly survivable re- resumed flight testing, and, by June, In the late 1960s and early 1970s, connaissance inherent in high-alti- Global Hawk participated in Roving experiments proved the feasibility tude operations. Given that demand, Sands, its first joint exercise. AV-3 of a “high-altitude, long-endurance” the Tier II+ UAV had to have en- began flying in September 1999, with RPV, often referred to by the acro- durance of at least 24 hours, carry a fourth Global Hawk waiting in the nym HALE. In 1971, the Compass high-resolution synthetic aperture at Edwards and a fifth nearly Arrow RPV flew four-hour surveil- radar and electro-optical-infrared complete. In December 1999, a soft- lance missions to a height of 81,000 sensors, and operate at 65,000 feet ware problem sent AV-3 careening feet. However, DOD canceled the to stay above the threat from en- across the Edwards runway at 178 expensive program after producing mph instead of its normal taxi speed 28 vehicles and never put them into of about seven mph. It ran off the operational service. runway, seriously damaging its fu- Requirements had changed. A selage and nose gear. program that was intended to pro- These growing pains, however, did duce a more sophisticated RPV, not faze Entzminger. “I was some- Compass Cope, featured a flyoff between Teledyne Ryan and Boeing. The concepts were to demonstrate autonomous flight from takeoff to landing. In 1974, Ryan’s Compass Cope piloted itself to a series of preprogrammed way points and set an RPV endurance record with a 28-hour flight. However, when it came time to buy an operational system, the Air Force of the 1970s was not ready. The development of the Global Positioning System and more-pow- erful computing power in the 1980s made the high-altitude, long-endur- USAF photo by SSgt. Reynaldo Ramon Contract personnel deployed forward and were a big part of Global Hawk’s ance unmanned aerial vehicle an at- success. Here, Terry Collins of L3 Communications checks the aircraft’s tractive prospect. satellite uplinks and downlinks.

AIR FORCE Magazine / November 2003 39 employed Global Hawk in an opera- tional context,” said Col. Ed Walby, the Global Hawk detachment com- mander and a U-2 pilot.

No Joystick Here Global Hawk is about as big as a medium-size corporate jet, but it

USAF photo by SSgt. Reynaldo Ramon sports a long, sailplane-like wing. It has a bulbous nose that houses a large, steerable satellite antenna. The UAV is not piloted from the ground via joystick; its flight control, navi- gation, and vehicle management are autonomous. The Global Hawk system has two provided were so sharp that, in one ground stations: a launch and recov- exercise, Global Hawk “caught the ery element and mission control ele- USS Kitty Hawk out at sea with an F/ ment. The LRE, which deploys with A-18 coming in to land.” the aircraft, provides precision guid- The UAV also got heavy use in the The Australia deployment dem- ance for takeoff and landing, using Afghan war. onstrated not only that Global Hawk differential GPS. The MCE gives could fly unrefueled 7,500 miles the vehicle its flight plan and tells it across the Pacific but also that it where to point its sensors. The two could be retasked while airborne. units can deploy alongside each other what surprised there weren’t more,” “We figured out we could actually or in widely separated parts of the he remarked later. fly off the black line,” said Maj. world. While the MCE preprograms David Hambleton. “We could go an initial flight plan, it can dynami- Rising Need wherever we wanted to—direct steer cally retask Global Hawk at any time By the time of Operation Allied to a point in space that we hadn’t the UAV is in flight. Force in spring 1999, US warfighting thought about going to before. That Pentagon officials have said that commanders were more than eager was a big revolution in our think- the Global Hawk’s synthetic aper- for a solution to the problem of ing.” ture radar can provide images of tar- keeping a constant eye on the battle- Exciting as the exercises were, gets at a distance of 100 miles. Its space. One key frustration was hav- Global Hawk was still an immature electro-optical-infrared system has ing to orchestrate several systems— system. USAF had only five ve- identified targets at a distance of 30 satellites, U-2 aircraft, and other hicles—all demonstrators lacking the miles. tactical reconnaissance platforms— full-scale mission systems or reli- On Nov. 18, 2001, Global Hawk to get the data they needed in time. ability features that would be added AV-5 was flying a routine check-out It couldn’t always be done. The to production models. mission over Afghanistan when it Predator UAV, which had first seen Then came the Sept. 11 terror was called to provide imagery of a operational service in 1995 over attacks and, three weeks later, the brewing crisis. Taliban and al Qaeda Bosnia, delivered sharp real-time start of Operation Enduring Free- detainees began a riot at Shebergan video, but it only provided a “soda dom in Afghanistan. Commanders Prison near Mazar-e-Sharif in north- straw” field of view. wanted steady coverage of wide- eastern Afghanistan. Hambleton, who Tracking mobile targets across the spread areas to assist in the hunt for was on duty at the CAOC, said, battlespace demanded assets with mobile targets such as al Qaeda lead- “There was a call for some recon- longer coverage times and wider ers. Global Hawk had the right com- naissance to go up there and figure fields of view—and the communica- bination of sensors, so Maj. Gen. out what was going on.” Global tions links to speed the images to a Robert F. Behler, then head of the Hawk, with its infrared sensor, was processing center for analysis and Air Force’s C2ISR Center at Lang- a natural choice, but AV-5 was oper- into the combined air operations cen- ley AFB, Va., put together a team to ating near Kandahar, a few hundred ter for execution. determine whether to deploy Glob- miles to the south at the time. Mis- Global Hawk (now owned by North- al Hawk. Soon, the team briefed sion control element pilots redirected rop Grumman) emerged as the likely Gen. John P. Jumper, Air Force Chief AV-5 to the north. solution. It was performing well in of Staff, that Global Hawk was ready “We got some really good infra- joint exercises. In fact, in late 1999, to go. red imagery, saw where the fires Adm. Harold W. Gehman Jr., then USAF sent a pair of Global Hawks— were,” Hambleton said. head of US Joint Forces Command, AV-5, the Australia veteran, and Dynamic retasking became Global described it as “the theater com- AV-3, repaired after its high-speed Hawk’s stock in trade, marking a mander’s low-hanging satellite.” taxi hijinks. The service also put major step forward from the UAV’s In early 2001, Global Hawk crossed together makeshift control and main- original concept of operations. Typi- the Pacific for exercises in Austra- tenance teams of Air Force and con- cally, ISR assets gather hundreds of lia. Ramirez said that the pictures it tractor personnel. “None had ever assigned images along a route worked

40 AIR FORCE Magazine / November 2003 out well in advance. Planning guar- straight up to Tora Bora and start tary members and contractors part- antees the aircraft won’t waste mis- taking pictures,” said Hambleton. At nered up. They didn’t have “a chance sion time flitting from point to point. 2 a.m. local time on Dec. 10, Global to forget what we learned in OEF,” Yet commanders in Operation En- Hawk picked up Taliban campfires, said Walby. during Freedom demanded faster lookouts on ridges, and cave en- As they had for Enduring Free- reaction. Global Hawk responded. trances and then relayed the infor- dom, the launch and recovery team “We got ... more and more into the mation back to the analysts. Minutes deployed to a base in Southwest Asia. ad hoc tasking, because it was easy,” later, Global Hawk detected star- However, this time, the mission con- Walby said. It took just “a few key- shaped infrared flashes, indicating trollers set up shop at Beale AFB, strokes and mouse clicks” to steer direct AC-130 hits on those targets. Calif. Global Hawk’s pilots and sen- Global Hawk to a new heading while Both AV-3 and AV-5 flew mis- sor operators would be directing the sensor operator redirected sen- sions through the end of 2001, log- AV-3 from halfway around the sors. Global Hawk flew a designated ging 17 combat sorties in all. The world. route to Afghanistan and then re- partnership broke up on Dec. 31 when Another critical node was located sponded to new tasking. Classified AV-5 ran into trouble over north- in Reno, Nev. This was the Nevada voice, electronic chat, and e-mail eastern Afghanistan and crashed Air National Guard’s 152nd Intelli- functions created a real-time com- while attempting a six-hour flight gence Squadron, tasked with ana- munications arena. The CAOC, Glob- back to base. USAF then grounded lyzing the Global Hawk imagery. al Hawk mission controllers, and the AV-3. A safety review cleared AV-3 The ANG analysts would push their image exploitation experts formed a and newly deployed AV-4 to resume on-the-spot analysis to the in-the- strong and flexible network. It was flying in late March 2002. Both air- ater CAOC over electronic chat, able to carry out real-time tasking as craft continued providing spectacu- voice, and e-mail communications events demanded. lar coverage of the battlespace. One avenues. Maj. Gen. David A. Deptula, the IR image snapped over eastern Af- On March 8, 2003, AV-3 arrived CAOC director, said of Global ghanistan on May 2 clearly showed in the theater and was tasked for Hawk: “Because we controlled it about 50 enemy fighters on a moun- three missions that technically fell from the CAOC, we could put it tain trail, strung out like pearls on a under Operation Southern Watch, the where we needed it, when we needed necklace. enforcement of the no-fly zone over it, and for the duration we needed The new pairing—AV-3 and AV- southern Iraq. Those missions be- it.” The infrared sensor on AV-5 4—completed 47 flights by July. came part of the prewar air cam- proved particularly valuable in track- The combat debut of Global Hawk paign that helped strip away Iraq’s ing an enemy that preferred to move “cracked the door open for an under- air defenses. The UAV helped locate at night. standing of how unmanned systems surface-to-air missile set-ups and po- In late November, US Central could operate from great distances,” tential Scud sites. Command began preparations for an Walby said. “It demonstrated a reach- Night 1 of Operation Iraqi Free- attack on al Qaeda hideouts in the back capability,” so that “we could dom found AV-3 aloft and working mountains of Tora Bora. Working have the guys controlling it linked just south of the 33rd parallel. That the UAV’s sensors in spot mode, with the guys who needed it.” evening, as wartime rules of engage- CENTCOM assembled a collage of ment took over, “all the fighters started images of trails and caves in the Over Iraq flowing north,” said Maj. Bill Cahill, area, each image covering about 1.5 As war in Iraq drew near, AV-3 square miles. US analysts spotted al was the only available Global Hawk. Qaeda campfires and “could, on oc- However, it had been modified with casion, see people on trails,” said both the SAR and EO/IR sensor pack- Hambleton. So good was the resolu- ages. Again, as in Afghanistan, mili- USAF photo tion that analysts could see al Qaeda fighters on foot. The images revealed which caves were active and which were not. Campfires “were at locations that provided good overlook for approaches into the area,” said Hambleton. Electro-optical images pinpointed possible Taliban encampments. “We essentially scanned the area, figured out who was where, where activity levels were, and that got us to vector in Predator, the AC-130, Strike Eagles, B-52s, all the different assets,” he added. During the coalition attack on Tora Bora, Global Hawk was tasked to In 2001, an autonomous Global Hawk crossed the Pacific for exercises in drop its planned imagery collection Australia. Along the way, the aircraft demonstrated that it could be retasked in profile and instead “go VFR direct flight.

AIR FORCE Magazine / November 2003 41 Similar tactics worked with F- 16CJ fighters. The fighters, flying

USAF photo suppression of enemy air defenses missions against the last remnants of Iraqi air defenses in the north, would carry mixed loads of weap- ons—Joint Direct Attack Munitions, Joint Standoff Weapons, Wind-Cor- rected Munitions Dispensers, and High-speed Anti-Radiation Mis- siles. Global Hawk was sent through earlier to spot likely targets—a pro- cess that made the air war more efficient. With cross-cuing from other platforms, the UAV would one of the Global Hawk liaison offic- locate and capture images of sus- ers at the CAOC. Shortly thereafter, pected air defense sites and then the Global Hawk team was told to pass the information back through push AV-3 north, too. Nevada to the CAOC. The CAOC AV-3 kept “nibbling” a little bit contacted the F-16CJs on VHF ra- farther north and a little bit farther A Global Hawk in flight. AV-3 was dio to notify them of the targets. east, so that, by the end of the mis- one of the few sensors that operated AV-3 was also one of the key sen- sion, it was 60 miles or so north of in the late March sandstorm in Iraq. sors allowing coalition air strikes to Its radar sensor permitted relentless the 33rd parallel. Cahill recalled, attacks on the Republican Guard. continue in Iraq during a fierce sand- “We were the first ISR platform to storm in late March. While AV-3’s punch north of the 33rd to work some optical and infrared sensors were of our target deck.” cial, secure online chat room. At the blinded by the dust, the aircraft could Global Hawk played a pivitol role same time, they forwarded actual focus its radar sensor on the Repub- in coalition strikes on targets such imagery over the Internet. Next stop lican Guard below—checking to see as the Republican Guard. Strike was the interdiction desk on the if those forces were still at point A or planners could dispatch aircraft CAOC floor. Then, fighters on sta- B. Once again, Global Hawk passed such as the F-15E to conduct strike tion over Iraq got the target informa- updated information on to fighters coordination and reconnaissance tion by voice from either an E-3 and bombers using JDAMs to con- (SCAR) for designated target ar- AWACS command and control air- tinue the attacks. eas, known as “kill boxes.” How- craft or directly via an onboard data Gen. T. Michael Moseley, the Gulf ever, the F-15E was not an opti- link. War II air boss, praised the unmanned mum platform for that work, said With AV-3 relaying a steady stream aircraft. “Sometimes you guys write Cahill. “If you’re trying to fly of imagery, precise attacks could be that fighter pilots don’t like UAVs,” around in an F-15E and look through made within a few hours. “You’re he told reporters during the war. “I your LANTIRN pod, it’s going to able to affect the fight that day,” love UAVs! I like them for any num- take you an exceedingly long amount said Cahill. ber of reasons. I like them because of time to cover a [given] area,” he Global Hawk also linked up with of the persistence; I like them be- explained. the B-1B and B-2 bombers, provid- cause you can stay over a target for To make SCAR work easier, Team ing a “last-look” assessment on hours.” Global Hawk organized missions that whether a ’s designated mean The ability of the Global Hawk would put AV-3 over the kill boxes points of impact, or DMPIs, still team to integrate information rap- three hours in advance of an attack. contained Iraqi tanks and artillery. idly for strike planners brought about “We’d flow [AV-3] in there and the If not, the bomber could hold its new tactics. “It’s just eye watering [imagery] collection managers would bombs for use against unplanned what you can do if you take advan- say, ‘Here is the area where we think pop-up targets. The UAV’s ana- tage of all this,” said Cahill. there are fielded ground forces, Re- lysts would be looking at the same On May 5, AV-3 touched down publican Guards units,’ ” said Cahill. image as the bomber mission plan- back home at Edwards. Like a One typical AV-3 radar image showed ners, leading to “a really quick chat of old, it arrived home sporting a vehicles dug into a field report,” said Cahill. Both elements collection of nose art stencils repre- between a highway, buildings, and a would use common reference num- senting each mission flown in Af- belt of trees. bers to identify the relevant DMPIs. ghanistan and Iraq. ■ Operation of the UAV was a truly global process. Over Iraq, Global Hawk snapped photos and beamed Rebecca Grant is a contributing editor of Air Force Magazine. She is president of IRIS Independent Research in Washington, D.C., and has worked for RAND, images back to the ANG analysts in the Secretary of the Air Force, and the Chief of Staff of the Air Force. Grant is a Nevada and secondarily to the in- fellow of the Eaker Institute for Aerospace Concepts, the public policy and theater CAOC. The analysts scruti- research arm of the Air Force Association’s Aerospace Education Foundation. nized the electronic take and shared Her most recent article, “The Redefinition of Strategic Airpower,” appeared in data about the imagery within a spe- the October issue.

42 AIR FORCE Magazine / November 2003