New spy plane lands at Beale

The 9th Reconnaissance Wing at Beale Air Force Base got a new toy of sorts Tuesday — one that basically delivered itself.

Just before 1 p.m., the unmanned RQ-4 Class B Global Hawk landed at the base's airstrip, the first step toward training "pilots" for the aircraft who will control its flight and reconnaissance activities from the ground.

Maj. Rob Gudikunst, who's piloted several of the Class A Global Hawks, said this version has the ability to not only take pictures, but listen in on electronic communications of all kinds.

"It'll do everything the U-2 does now," he said of the venerable manned spy plane the Global Hawk is supposed to replace by the end of 2013. "Initially, this'll just have imagery, but eventually we'll get audio signals as well."

For the next few months, the Global Hawk B will be used to train on-ground pilots and undergo testing for its sensory array. It will be eventually sent elsewhere for use in Iraq, Afghanistan or wherever else needed.

The plane took off Tuesday morning from Edwards Air Force Base in Southern California, but was always in contact with at least two communication "links" as it flew north, Gudikunst said. Even if the communication was lost, though, the plane is still capable of continuing its path and landing on its own.

Gudikunst said given the plane's level of automation, learning the link system is the hardest part for pilots.

"It's important for a pilot to be able to predict what a plane will do," he said. "Most of the time it's flying, it has a preprogrammed mission plan."

Built by Northrup Grumman under a contract with the U.S. Air Force, the Class B Global Hawk has a 130-foot wingspan, 47-foot length, 15-foot height and weighs about 32,500 pounds when fully fueled, according to Beale officials. When all instruments are installed, the plane will have a price tag of about $66 million.

With a range of about 13,500 miles — enough to fly from New York City to Sydney, Australia, Gudikunst said — the Global Hawk has no onboard weapons, which makes it ideal for Air Force officials seeking permission for flyovers from other countries.

As the Global Hawk appeared on the horizon Tuesday, it came from the northwest after first flying a pattern over the air base. The plane made a modest roar as it came down, its wheels touching the runway with only the slightest of smoke.

Though the plane can taxi itself to a hangar, maintenance crews turned off the engine after landing, to tow it at a slower speed and allow some checks of panels and instruments which an onboard pilot would normally monitor.

As he pulled blocks from the plane's wheels before towing began, Airman 1st Class Max Todd said the arrival was exciting. "When there's a new thing coming, there's always more hustle and bustle," he said. "And there's the whole rivalry between the U-2s and the Global Hawk guys, where it's like, 'Hey, we've got the new plane.'"

Gudikunst chuckled as the crew checked the plane, explaining its newness meant the base didn't have all the necessary tools to work on it. Securing a hatch, then, became the job of that standby of the military and other do-it-yourself projects: duct tape.

When the Global Hawks were used in the Middle East, he said, they were exposed to temperature extremes that eroded the composite under the planes' paint.

"When we got them back, they looked like mummies with all the tape," he said.

Beale, which is home to the Global Hawk program, will see more of the planes in the next few years. Another is set to arrive in December, and there are 70 planned to be built in the Block 20 and Block 30 programs of the plane.

Block 20 planes have the camera, while Block 30 has both a camera and a sensor system capable of picking up radio frequencies, cell phone calls and most other kinds of electronic communications, Gudikunst said.

Those capabilities make the U-2, and its human pilot, one step closer to obsolete, Gudikunst said.

"I don't think you can turn this train around," he said of growing automation in the military. "It's just a fact of how things are going."

Contact Appeal-Democrat reporter Ben van der Meer at 749-4709 or bvandermeer@appealdemocrat.com. See Ben's blog, "Yuba County Insider," at appealdemocrat.com.