Grand Forks Air Force Base is taking control of more Global Hawk unmanned aircraft, according to their manufacturer Northrop Grumman.
The latest batch serve as, essentially, flying "cell towers" that allow troops on the ground to chat with bombers in the sky, according to spokesman Jim Stratford today.
He was at an Air Force Association conference in Washington, D.C., with George Guerra, the Northrop Grumman executive overseeing the Global Hawk program. Guerra discussed the base's new aircraft at the conference but wasn't available for comment.
In technical terms, the new aircraft are Block 20 variants that feature so-called "battlefield airborne communication nodes."
BACN connects radio equipment that doesn't operate on the same frequency and allows them to circumvent radio-wave-blocking mountains, drastically improving voice and data transmissions in the war zone.
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Gen. William Shelton, the Air Force's chief information officer in 2009, told Congress then that the system had reduced the time it takes for troops to call in air support by about 25 percent.
The other Global Hawks at Grand Forks Air Force Base are Block 40s, a brand new model that features advanced radar. The first of 10 to be stationed at the base arrived last week.
The Block 20s with BACN, of which there are two in existence, are both now controlled remotely from ground stations at the base, Stratford said, but the aircraft themselves are deployed.
They're at work over Afghanistan along with three similarly equipped aircraft originally designed as business jets, according to Northrop Grumman.
Block 20s have been in Air Force service since 2008, when the first arrived at Beale Air Force Base, Calif.
Stratford said the Air Force wants two more of them reconfigured with BACN, which would also be controlled from Grand Forks.
Reach Tran at (701) 780-1248; (800) 477-6572, ext. 248; or send email to ttran@gfherald.com .
