The Euro hawk^® an unmanned aircraft system is built by Northrop Grumman Corporation and EADS Defence security. The unmanned aircraft successfully completed its test flight on June 29th. It flew from Northrop Grumman‘s Palmdale in California manufacturing facility around 10:30 am and went up to 32000 feet over Palmdale’s desert skies and landed after 2 hours of flight at Edwards Air Force Base at 12:24 p.m, in California. "The Euro Hawk^® marks the first international configuration of the RQ-4 Global Hawk high-altitude, long-endurance (HALE) UAS, and strengthens Northrop Grumman's first trans-Atlantic cooperation with Germany and EADS Defence & Security," said Duke Dufresne, sector vice president and general manager of the Strike and Surveillance Systems Division for Northrop Grumman's Aerospace Systems sector. He also said that the Euro Hawk will be equipped with new signals intelligence (SIGINT) mission system which is developed by EADS Defence & security by providing standoff capabilities for detecting electronic and communications emitters. A ground station consisting of a mission control, launch and recovery elements will be provided by Northrop Grumman and EADS Defence &security will provide a ground station for SIGINT, which will receive data from the Euro Hawk^®.

“ It is a day of great pride for all the teams involved, as the first Euro Hawk^® takes to the skies, marking a significant step in this demonstration of well-shared trust and efficiency," said Nicolas Chamussy, senior vice president of Mission Air Systems for EADS Defence & Security.

The German Ministry of Defence gave the contract in January 2007 to Euro Hawk GmbH for the development, test and support of Euro Hawk^®. Under the contract it will provide aircraft modification, mission control, launch and recovery ground segments and will provide logistics support. "Formed as a 50-50 joint venture company by Northrop Grumman and EADS Defence & Security, Euro Hawk GmbH acts as the national prime contractor for the German (MoD) throughout the lifecycle of the Euro Hawk^® system," said Neset Tuekenmez, chief executive officer of the Euro Hawk GmbH.

It has an endurance of 30hrs and a wingspan larger than a commercial airliner. It can go up to a maximum service ceiling of 60,000 feet. Euro hawk^® is an interoperable and economical replacement for the ageing fleet of manned Breguet Atlantic aircraft, which is in service since 1972 and is about to retire this year.