GLOBAL HAWK MOVES NORTH UNMANNED PLANE TO STAY AT BEALE.Byline: Daily News PALMDALE - The Air Force's first production RQ-4A Global Hawk unmanned reconnaissance plane has arrived at its new home at Beale Air Force Base Beale Air Force Base is a United States Air Force base near Marysville, California, that was established in 1943. The host wing is the 9th Reconnaissance Wing, which includes an operations group, a maintenance directorate, a mission support group, and a medical group. in Northern California Northern California, sometimes referred to as NorCal, is the northern portion of the U.S. state of California. The region contains the San Francisco Bay Area, the state capital, Sacramento; as well as the substantial natural beauty of the redwood forests, the northern . Designated AF-3, the unmanned aerial vehicle A powered, aerial vehicle that does not carry a human operator, uses aerodynamic forces to provide vehicle lift, can fly autonomously or be piloted remotely, can be expendable or recoverable, and can carry a lethal or nonlethal payload. arrived after a flight from Edwards Air Force Base Edwards Air Force Base, U.S. military installation, 301,000 acres (121,805 hectares), S Calif., NE of Lancaster; est. 1933. It is one of the largest air force bases in the United States and has the world's longest runway. . Northrop Grumman's Palmdale plant assembles Global Hawks for the U.S. Air Force. Beale's 9th Reconnaissance Wing had been operating pre-production Global Hawks in Iraq and Afghanistan while testing continued at Edwards. ``For quite some time, our pilots and sensor operators have been operating the system in theater from half a world away,'' said Col. Larry Wells, commander of the 9th Reconnaissance Wing at Beale Air Force Base. The plane's arrival at Beale symbolizes the Global Hawk's transition from a development program to an operational system, said Carl O. Johnson, Northrop Grumman's Global Hawk vice president and integrated product team leader. AF-3's arrival at Beale followed the first flight of N-1, the first Global Hawk for the U.S. Navy. N-1 is in testing at Edwards Air Force Base. It will go to Naval Air Station Patuxent River "Pax River" redirects here. For the river, see Patuxent River. Naval Air Station Patuxent River (IATA: NHK, ICAO: KNHK, FAA LID: NHK), also known as NAS Pax River, is a United States Naval Air Station located in St. in Maryland next summer to prepare for the Navy's Global Hawk maritime demonstration scheduled to begin in mid-2005. The company recently began production of a larger Global Hawk, designated the RQ-4B, at its Antelope Valley This article is about the Los Angeles County region. For the census-designated place in Wyoming, see Antelope Valley-Crestview, Wyoming. The Antelope Valley Manufacturing Center in Palmdale. Compared with the RQ-4A, the RQ-4B features a larger wingspan, a longer fuselage and an electrical generator that can deliver 150 percent more power. The larger size and power enable it to carry more sensors. Northrop Grumman plans to deliver the first three RQ-4B air vehicles in 2006. |
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