Page 38 - Australian Defence Magazine April-May 2021

ADVERTORIAL
T A Look Back at HALE UAS in Australia
wo Australian and two American aviators made history evidence-based advice for capability decision making,” notes Jackie 9 June, 1928 when they landed their Fokker F.VII mono- Craig, then DTSO’s project director for the trial.
plane, dubbed Southern Cross, at Eagle Farm Airport in The Southern Cross 2 demonstration was a critical point in the evo- Brisbane, Queensland, completing the first trans-Pacific lution of Northrop Grumman’s HALE UAS technology, proving not
flight from the mainland United States to Australia, and this pioneer- only the considerable capabilities already in the system design, but in-
ing flight was somewhat replicated 73 years later when Australians and Americans again partnered to make aviation history.
On 23 April, 2001, a US Air Force Global Hawk became the first autonomous system to complete a trans-Pacific flight. Dubbed ‘South- ern Cross 2’ for the occasion in honour of the aircraft Charles Kings- ford-Smith piloted across the Pacific in 1928, the Global Hawk landed at RAAF Base Edinburgh in South Australia, having taken off twenty hours earlier from Edwards Air Force Base in California.
A six-week trial of high-altitude, long-endurance (HALE) un- manned aircraft system (UAS) capabilities was commenced by the AUS-US Department of Defence’s Deutch-Ayers Project Arrangement for collaborative research, development and engineering, the trial al- lowing both scientists and military operators to exercise and assess the newly-developed Global Hawk.
Duncan Craig, then Defence Science and Technology Organisa- tion’s* (DSTO) operations research lead, recalls, “The trials were a series of vignettes based around specific Australian maritime surveil- lance scenarios and designed to gain insights into both the technical performance of many Global Hawk system elements, as well as how the overall UAS system could be most effectively employed as an integrated military capability in an Australian defence context.”
Southern Cross 2 commenced the first of eleven demonstration flights 26 April, concluding with its final flight 4 June, accumulating 238.5 mis- sion hours and 1,988 images over land and sea. The trial also saw South- ern Cross 2 participate in Exercise TANDEM THRUST, the first time a Global Hawk participated in a multi-lateral military exercise.
While Global Hawk was designed for overland operations, Southern Cross 2 was temporarily equipped with maritime modes developed in collaboration with DSTO that would enable demonstration of surveil- lance mission capability over the vast oceans surrounding Australia.
“The demonstration was important for Australian defence as it sup- ported analysis of the utility of HAE (high-altitude endurance) UAVs in surveillance roles relevant to the Australian context and provided
formed technical changes that allowed for more flexible operations and tasking, further increasing confidence in the system for an expedited operational deployment. Barely five months after completing the Aus- tralian demonstration, Global Hawks were accelerated into operational service in the skies over Afghanistan following the events of 9/11 and have since amassed 320,000 operational hours.
Avis Anderson, then Northrop Grumman’s deployment site lead, reflects on lessons learned: “One of the key takeaways was system flex- ibility through dynamic tasking, using structured mission planning to get to and from the area of responsibility, then setting up a collection plan based on known targets. This was done through pilots, working with sensor operators, to maximise the target collection deck.”
As Global Hawks proved their capability, the US Navy acquired five Block 10 Global Hawks from the US Air Force and tasked Northrop Grumman to develop an intended six-month Broad Area Maritime Surveillance Demonstrator (BAMS-D). Twelve years on, it’s still in operational service.
The US Navy needed a more robust system to meet enduring requirements, and entered a cooperative development program with the Royal Australian Air Force to develop the MQ-4C Triton. While a derivative of Global Hawk, Triton is developed to perform missions in a maritime environment and, aside from structural appearance, shares little in common with its older sibling.
Triton deployed for the first time in January 2020 and has been prov- ing invaluable for Indo-Pacific operations. Simultaneously, Northrop Grumman continues to develop the multi-intelligence configuration of Triton, which will be identical for both Australia and the US Navy, enabling critical intelligence sharing between the long-time allies. Aus- tralia’s first Triton began production in October 2020 and is scheduled for delivery in 2023.
* Defence Science and Technology Organisation was renamed Defence Science and Technology Group in 2015.
www.northropgrumman.com/who-we-are/global-presence/northrop-grumman-in-australia/