RQ-4 Global Hawk

RQ-4 Global Hawk is Northrop Grumman's high-altitude, long-endurance uncrewed aircraft system for persistent intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance. It carries multiple sensor payloads to collect near-real-time, high-resolution information across large geographic areas in daylight, darkness and adverse weather, with some aircraft also used for airborne communications relay.

Global Hawk can remain aloft for more than 30 hours and has operated with the United States Air Force since 2001. Northrop Grumman reported more than 320,000 accumulated flight hours across military operations and civil-support missions. Its mission history includes imagery collection, border and maritime awareness, disaster response, search and rescue, and atmospheric data collection; payload and role vary by aircraft block and operator configuration.