The Air Force has awarded Northrop Grumman a $60 million contract to begin production of the next five RQ-4B Global Hawk unmanned aerial vehicles. Northrop officials say the company expects to begin production of hardware late this year and assembly next year. The new RQ-4B is designed to carry 3,000 pounds of payload—a 50 percent increase over the RQ-4A model—to deliver and increase the amount and type of information available to warfighters.
Air Force Gen. Charles Q. Brown Jr., chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, held meetings with defense leaders from the Philippines, Japan, and South Korea during a trip to the Indo-Pacific this week.