

US flew Global Hawk spy drone missions from Australia - bootload
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2012-09-03/revealed-us-flew-drone-missions-from-australia/4236306

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benologist
Where would they fly to from Adelaide? Are they just testing them there or
could they actually fly missions?

For those who don't know AU that city's pretty much as far as you could be
from... anywhere really.

[https://maps.google.com/maps?q=adelaide&ll=-35.173808,13...](https://maps.google.com/maps?q=adelaide&ll=-35.173808,138.867188&spn=142.460609,346.289063&hnear=Adelaide+South+Australia,+Australia&t=h&z=2)

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bootload
_"... Where would they fly to from Adelaide? ..."_

with an _'official range'_ of 16,100 kilometres the following spring to mind:

\- Afghanistan, 10,700Km ~
[http://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=distance+from+Afghanist...](http://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=distance+from+Afghanistan+to+adelaide)

\- North Korea, 8,400 km ~
[http://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=distance+from+North+Kor...](http://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=distance+from+North+Korea+to+adelaide)

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discodave
Yes, but why fly from Adelaide rather than Guam or Diego Garcia or the UAE
which are all closer.

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dsl
China does not have great costal radar, so they station a ton of ships in the
Philippine Sea to intercept Guam and the East China Sea to cover Misawa and
Kunsan.

The South China Sea is less guarded, so you can fly out of Paya Lebar in
Singapore, or any number of locations in Australia (we are quite friendly).

Adelaide also provides air services to JDF Pine Gap, which is the Australian
hub UKUSA intelligence operations.

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philip1209
I would love to learn more about the types of sensors on these aircraft. I'm
wrapping up majors in systems engineering and physics, so reading about things
like Synthetic aperture radar [1] makes me foam at the mouth.

[1] <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Synthetic_Aperture_Radar>

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nosequel
You might find some information on Northrop Grumman's site, but don't get too
hopeful as the Global Hawk is purposed as being a truck, where the sensors are
the _good stuff_ that no one talks about.

I'd recommend looking into Northrop and Raytheon if you foam at the mouth when
thinking about sensors.

