The Global Hawk UAV Australian deployment-sensor, HCI and ground element design for surveillance missions

Abstract

The Global Hawk high altitude endurance unmanned aerial vehicle was deployed to Australia in April 2001 for six weeks. The system conducted eleven missions with the focus on maritime surveillance. This was the culmination of two years collaboration between the United States and Australia which included development of three new sensor modes, sensor control and exploitation techniques to efficiently perform surveillance with a system primarily developed for the reconnaissance role. The paper describes the Australian contribution to the Global Hawk deployment. It describes the sensor, system integration, system control, mission management and ground element challenges presented by shifting the operational focus from reconnaissance to surveillance.