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Euro Hawk UAV
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In the course of DID’s RQ-4 Global Hawk coverage, we’ve mentioned the Euro Hawk project, which aims to produce an RQ-4 with additional capabilities in signals intelligence collection (SIGINT) as well as some ground surveillance capabilities. An MoU was signed in May 2006. Now the German Ministry of Defence (MoD) has awarded a EUR 430 million (currently about $560 million) contract to EADS and Northrop Grumman joint venture Eurohawk GmbH for the development, test and support of the Euro Hawk unmanned SIGINT, surveillance, and reconnaissance system. Other Global Hawks will be available to Europe via the combined NATO AGS system.

The Euro Hawk UAV will use the RQ-4 Block 20 Global Hawk as its base, and add a new SIGINT mission system developed by EADS. The SIGINT system will provide the apability to detect and collect information from electronic intelligence (ELINT) radar emitters and communications emitters; EADS will also provide the ground stations that will receive and analyze the data. Delivery of the first demonstrator is scheduled for 2010, with delivery of the 4 production UAVs planned between 2011-2014. These Euro Hawk systems will replace Germany’s aging fleet of 2 Breguet Atlantic SIGINT aircraft, which have been in service since 1972. For more, see See EADS release | Bundeswehr page [in Deutsch].