Northrop Grumman contractors and members of the 31st Test and Evaluation Squadron, m Edwards Air Force Base, California, perform final maintenance on the Global Hawk aircraft before it's flight at RAAF Base Edinburgh, Adelaide, Australia, in support of Exercise TANDEM THRUST. Able to cover more than 40,000 square miles, the jet powered Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) RQ-4A Global Hawk has a wing span of 116 feet, equal to a Boeing 737, able to fly up to 65,000 feet and loiter for more than 24 hours. The Global Hawk deployed to Australia m April to June 2001, flying more than a dozen missions. This Global Hawk completed its biggest challenge to date the non-stop Trans-Pacific flight...

The original finding aid described this photograph as:

[Complete] Scene Caption: Northrop Grumman contractors and members of the 31st Test and Evaluation Squadron, from Edwards Air Force Base, California, perform final maintenance on the Global Hawk aircraft before it's flight at RAAF Base Edinburgh, Adelaide, Australia, in support of Exercise TANDEM THRUST. Able to cover more than 40,000 square miles, the jet powered Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) RQ-4A Global Hawk has a wing span of 116 feet, equal to a Boeing 737, able to fly up to 65,000 feet and loiter for more than 24 hours. The Global Hawk deployed to Australia from April to June 2001, flying more than a dozen missions. This Global Hawk completed its biggest challenge to date the non-stop Trans-Pacific flight from Edwards to Edinburgh. TANDEM THRUST 2001 a combined US, Australian, and Canadian military exercise for crisis action planning and execution of contingency response operations. The biannual exercise is held in the vicinity of Shoalwater Bay training area in Queensland, Australia.

Subject Operation/Series: TANDEM THRUST 01

Base: Adelaide

State: Queensland

Country: Australia (AUS)

Scene Camera Operator: SSGT Jeremy Lock, USAF

Release Status: Released to Public
Combined Military Service Digital Photographic Files