Northrop Grumman has begun flight testing its new MS-177 multi-spectral sensor for the RQ-4 Global Hawk remotely piloted aircraft, the company announced Wednesday. The sensor will improve RQ-4 targeting capabilities, and Northrop said it has completed a “successful inaugural flight” at its Palmdale, Calif., facility. Taken together with the recently successful demonstrations of the SYERS-2 intelligence sensor and an Optical Bar Camera, Northrop’s upgrades to the RQ-4’s capabilities are aimed at priming the unmanned platform to take over the mission set of the manned U-2 reconnaissance aircraft, which specializes in high altitude, long endurance ISR flights. “The MS-177 is the new benchmark in imaging intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance sensors and its integration into the Global Hawk platform expands the mission capability we can provide,” said Mick Jaggers, vice president and program manager of the Global Hawk program, in a company press release. “This successful flight is another milestone in an aggressive effort to demonstrate Global Hawk’s versatility and effectiveness in carrying a variety of sensor payloads and support establishing OMS compliancy.” Testing will continue through June, according to the release.
Members of the House Armed Services Committee say the AIM-260 Joint Advanced Tactical Missile program has been set back three months due to the ongoing government shutdown. The comment is noteworthy because the JATM's status has been kept tightly under wraps.
