Comments on: Inside Global Hawk

By: blight_

blight_ — Tue, 14 Feb 2012 23:43:19 +0000

You’re kidding…mIRC?!

Well, it beats adobe connect. /shudder

By: blight_

blight_ — Tue, 14 Feb 2012 23:42:52 +0000

If anything, the Iron Cross is more Germany than Third Reich.

That said, it’s also a relative of the Templar Cross.

By: Andy

Andy — Tue, 14 Feb 2012 23:11:43 +0000

(Posted 47 weeks ago?!?)

By: Andy

Andy — Tue, 14 Feb 2012 23:10:22 +0000

The Iron Cross symbol actually goes way back to the Middle Ages; the Nazis were just one group in a very long line that used it. That’s why it’s still used in Germany today — it’s a tradition of hundreds of years.

By: blight

blight — Tue, 14 Feb 2012 22:04:03 +0000

Someone is going to whine that Iron Crosses were used by Nazi Germany (but are still in use by the Heer today, and if aren’t considered a Nazi symbol in Germany, they probably shouldn’t be elsewhere).

By: Helping Haninah

Helping Haninah — Tue, 14 Feb 2012 21:49:31 +0000

There is insufficient bandwidth for the US to do ALL the things they want to do with SATCOM. But by scheduling requirements smarter you can “do more with less”. And there are ways to do missions without needing so much SATCOM time. Also — there is/was never a plan to fly 50 Global hawks at the same time…realistically the requirement was for 6 combat orbits…at max that woudl be 12 jets airborne — 1 on station…1 going or coming from that orbit.

By: Mater Like TaMater w

Mater Like TaMater w — Tue, 14 Feb 2012 21:46:20 +0000

The “hands-on” is required because the nature of today’s fight is fluid — the static intelligence gathering of the Cold War died with 9–11. Today’s fight changes by the hour and mIRC is the priamry means of tasking systems like the RQ-4. Real time intelligence needs are piped to the pilots flying and those requirements can be executed very quickly. Not that the U-2 can’t do pretty much the same thing.

Crew size for a typical RQ-4 mission depends. Crew duty day is 12 hours…so techincally two pilots can handle a 24-hour mission…but try staring at a computer screen for more than about 8 hours and your eyes will stop working. Optimally pilots would see 4–6 hour mission events every day to every other day. The rest of the duty period is spent on additional training or in oversight roles supporting the mission but not logging flight time.

By: McQueen

McQueen — Tue, 14 Feb 2012 21:41:25 +0000

While true — it’s also irrelivant since the USAF is making decisions purely off the pocket book not off actual capability. Adding SIGINT to the RQ-4 has always been in the plans but it planned in a phased manner. Now that SIGINT is being fielded on the RQ-4 the system is being cut out to prevent the eventual shut down of a manned system by an unmanned system. Too bad though — keeping a SIGINT system on station for 24–28 hours would be a boon to the spooks…but hell on the guys doing the listening.

By: Ekim L

Ekim L — Tue, 14 Feb 2012 21:38:00 +0000

Weather is an issue — becuase the system is unmanned there is no way to monitor how fast ice melts off the wing with a climb in altitude so there are restrictions against flight in icing conditions and to add a deicing system means less fuel…which means less range/time on station.
Time to altitude is not a problem — the jet climbs through 18,000 feet inside of 10nm from the launch base (5–7 minutes)…within 30 minutes it is above 45,000 feet (and above MOST commerical/civil aircraft)…within an hour it’s above 50,000 feet.
Sensor scope is a tough one to answer — the sensor does fine for what it was designed to do. it was never designed to be as good as the U-2’s cameras — basics physics can’t allow a 10–12″ mirror to bring in as much light as a 14–16″ mirror…there is no getting around that. The camera does very well for its size but comparing it to the U-2 optics is like racing a V4 against a V6.

By: MikeL

MikeL — Tue, 14 Feb 2012 21:28:45 +0000

The 4 Iron Crosses are historic to the 9th Reconnaisance Wing — they represent campaigns the 9th has participated in.