Northrop Grumman has scheduled flight tests of three new payloads for the RQ-4B Global Hawk fleet next year. The tests are made possible by the development of a universal payload adaptor jointly funded by Northrop and the US Air Force.
In its original form, the RQ-4B lacked the payload attach points to fit two sensors carried by the Lockheed Martin U-2S, the reconnaissance aircraft the Global Hawk is scheduled to replace after Fiscal 2019.
The optical bar camera is used to monitor the Sinai peninsula in Egypt, fulfilling US treaty obligations.
The senior year electro-optical reconnaissance system (SYERS-2) payload is used by the U-2 to collect multi-spectral images, a product that proved useful in the last decade for detecting improvised explosive devices recently buried in the ground. Read more
Source: www.uasvision.com
