Scott Nicholas
Northrop Grumman has conducted an inaugural flight test of a multispectral sensor payload onboard a high-altitude long-range unmanned aircraft system.
Northrop said Wednesday it integrated the MS-177 sensor into an RQ-4 Global Hawk drone during the test flight held at the company’s facility in Palmdale, California.
The sensor is designed to find targets with broad area search and sensing methods as well as help operators fix, track and assess targets via multiple sensing modalities.
Mick Jaggers, vice president and program manager of Northrop’s Global Hawk program, said the integration of the MS-177 platform into the Global Hawk is part the company’s push to expand the UAV’s mission profile.
Jaggers added the flight test demonstrated the Global Hawk’s capacity to carry various sensor payloads.
Global Hawk is designed to collect intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance data as well as high-resolution imagery of land areas in all types of weather.
