Is It Ready Yet?

Sept. 7, 2005

The Air Force last week completed flight tests on the latest version of the Global Hawk UAV. Test personnel at Edwards AFB, Calif., put the Block 10 production UAV through a battery of exercises, covering flying operations and electro-optical, infrared, and synthetic radar sensor function and sensor image quality. Currently, the Global Hawks that have been providing ISR imagery over Iraq and Afghanistan are one-of-a-kind technology demonstrators. Once Air Combat Command gives the OK on the production version, blue-suit maintainers will take over from civilian contractors.

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