If all goes well, the German air force could be the first air arm to routinely operate a military unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) in European airspace. The first Euro Hawk should fly from the U.S. to the Manching test base in southern German during mid-2010 and begin operational flight evaluations from Schleswig-Jagel air base a year later. The Euro Hawk is a SIGINT version of the Global Hawk built by Northrop Grumman in a joint venture with EADS Defence and Security (Hall 2, Stand A151).
But the air force is well aware of the procedural and technical hurdles that still lie ahead, if the schedule is to be maintained. “Certification and integration of the air vehicle is a critical issue. The European authorities will require more than one ‘see-and-avoid’ sensor, so integration into nonsegregated airspace will be difficult,” said Lt. Col. Eberhard Knoelker of Germany’s Air Staff speaking at the Air Surveillance and Reconnaissance 2009 conference, which was organized by Defence IQ. The technical hurdles mainly concern the integration of the integrated signals intelligence system (ISIS) system supplied by EADS Defence and Security.
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