Global Hawk flies in NATO Joint ISR exercise

A Northrop Grumman Global Hawk unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) has taken part in NATO’s Unified Vision 2014 (UV14) exercise, as part of trials to evaluate NATO’s capability to coordinate and deploy allied ISR systems.

The Global Hawk was flown by US European Command in three full-day sorties from Orland Main Air Station, Norway. The aircraft’s participation in the exercise will help NATO prepare for the introduction of its future NATO Alliance Ground Surveillance (AGS) system – a derivative of the Global Hawk UAV – and enhance data sharing with other ISR systems provided by nations.

Satellites, aircraft, UAVs, naval vessels, ground sensors and human intelligence from 18 NATO countries took part in the trial, testing NATO's ability to gather information and fuse intelligence from multiple sources – space, in the air, on land and at sea – at different stages of operations.

Northrop Grumman is the prime contractor for the NATO AGS system. NATO issued a $1.7 billion contract to the company in May 2012 for the system, which will give commanders a comprehensive picture of the situation on the ground using five Global Hawk UAVs.

Jim Edge, general manager, NATO AGS Management Agency, said: ‘This exercise demonstrated the powerful role unmanned systems can play in helping NATO conduct its future ISR operations. It was great to see how existing airspace procedures enabled the seamless integration of a NATO AGS into European airspace for this trial.’

Joint Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance (JISR) is a key factor associated with the Alliance's strategic readiness and the success of its operations and missions. Enhancing NATO's JISR capabilities is a major theme that will be highlighted at the NATO Summit in Wales in September. NATO AGS includes European-sourced ground assets that will provide in-theatre support to commanders of deployed forces. Mobile and Transportable Ground Stations will provide an interface between the AGS core system and a wide range of interoperable NATO and national command, control, intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance systems.

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RQ-4 Global Hawk