Northrop Grumman’s RQ-4 Global Hawk unmanned aerial vehicle has completed 1,000 flights. The fourth production Global Hawk, AF-4, spent more than 18 hours at high altitudes without refueling supporting the war on terror for the record flight, according to a Northrop release. Global Hawk program director, Randy Brown, at Aeronautical Systems Center, Wright-Patterson AFB, Ohio, cited the RQ-4’s “excellent track record,” including the current deployment of two Block 10 variants that are flying 20-hour missions “with only four hours between recovery and the subsequent launch.” Northrop says the Global Hawk UAV has been at least 95 percent mission effective since its initial deployment shortly after 9/11.
Eielson Air Force Base, Alaska, celebrated the beddown of its full complement of F-35s with a ceremony just weeks after the base received the last of its 54 fighters. The arrival of those F-35s in mid-April gave Eielson the Air Force’s second fully-equipped, combat-coded F-35 wing, comprising two fighter squadrons.…