Author of this article: Nanshan Passenger
Referring to the US military's "Global Hawk" drone , I believe everyone is familiar with it. This drone is one of the main intelligence collection equipment of the US military and is active around China all year round. However, in recent years, the US military believes that the Global Hawk drone lacks stealth capabilities and is difficult to survive in actual combat, so it is planned to retire all of them in 2027. But recently, the US military has found a new place for these drones - collecting data for the hypersonic missile test.
According to Global Network citing the US "power" website, several retired "Global Hawk" 20 and 30 drones will be classified as the Pentagon "Air Range" project. After modification, " Global Hawk " will become a semi-autonomous unmanned aircraft that tracks hypersonic missiles.
"Power" website said that the "Air Range" project will usher in a "new era of hypersonic development in the United States."
It is understood that as early as 2021, Norg announced that the retired Global Hawk drone will serve the Pentagon's "Air Range" project. The Global Hawk will be sent to the Grand Forks Air Force Base in Dakoda for modification, installing telemetry data and monitoring the system under test. The modified Global Hawk will be called the "Fire Range Hawk".
new "range eagle" will have the ability to high altitude, long-term aviation medium range measurement and support the testing of hypersonic aircraft and other long-range weapons.
"Power" website stated that the "Air Range" project is part of the U.S. hypersonic weapon program. Over the years, the research and development of hypersonic weapons has always been an important focus of the Pentagon. The Pentagon applied for a $5 billion budget in fiscal 2023, but the complex logistics has always restricted the United States' progress in the field of hypersonics. The article
said that the US military is still using the old missile test site tracking fleet to collect remote sensing data, such as the "Pacific Tracker" and "Pacific Collector" in the 1960s.
Usually each measurement vessel is deployed in advance to the pre-determined flight trajectory of the hypersonic missile in order to continuously monitor its flight trajectory. Then use sensors such as radar on board to track and record valuable flight data.
However, this method of collecting data will take a lot of time and resources, and determining the location of the ship in the Pacific is not easy, so the Pentagon can only get 4 to 6 trial opportunities a year. What is even more worrying about the US military is that each dispatch of the measuring ship is simply a reminder to the opponent: the United States will conduct hypersonic missile tests in the Pacific Ocean, come and watch.
Although the Pentagon has tried to replace missile surveying ships with aircraft in recent years, such as the Gulfstream G150 aircraft of the US Missile Defense Agency , the P-3 Orion patrol aircraft and the WB-57 reconnaissance aircraft, the results of multiple tests show that missile surveying ships are still the first choice.
And Brian Parker, director of the Range Eagle project, told the "Range Eagle" website that the "Range Eagle" will solve this problem well. As an unmanned system, the "Fire Range Eagle" can be closer to flying hypersonic missiles, which is something that the aircraft cannot do. Moreover, the "Fire Range Eagle" can also collect higher-quality test data than the measurement ship.
Therefore, the "Fire Range Eagle" will become the most logical choice for the Pentagon's "Air Range" project. The "power" website of
said that 4 "range range eagles" have been put into service now. According to photos previously released by Nog, a total of 24 are expected to be put into the "air range" project. The first batch of "Fire Range Eagles" will be tested in 2024.
The Pentagon has formulated an ambitious indicator for this: If the Range Hawk test results are good, it will be planned to conduct 50 hypersonic missile tests a year in the future.
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