Gaiaterra: Elysea's Conflict/RQ-3 Global Hawk

The RQ-3 Global Hawk are the Federation of Aquila's own scout aircraft.

Appearance
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Overview
A high-altitude, remotely-piloted surveillance aircraft introduced in 2001 V.C. It was initially designed by Ryan Aeronautical (now part of Northrop Grumman), and known as Tier II+ during development. The RQ-3 provides a broad overview and systematic surveillance using high-resolution synthetic aperture radar (SAR) and electro-optical/infrared (EO/IR) sensors with long loiter times over target areas

History
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In the 1990s V.C., the Air Force was developing uncrewed aerial intelligence platforms. One was the stealthy Lockheed Martin RQ-2 DarkStar; another was the Global Hawk. Due to budget cuts, only one of the programs could survive. It was decided to proceed with the Global Hawk for its range and payload rather than go with the stealth Dark Star.

The Global Hawk took its first flight on 1998 V.C. The first seven aircraft were built under the Advanced Concept Technology Demonstration (ACTD) program in order to evaluate the design and demonstrate its capabilities. Demand for the RQ-4's abilities was high in the 2004 V.C. Voshkod invason of Aquila; thus, the prototype aircraft were actively operated by the Aquilan Air Force in the 2nd Voshkod Campaign in 2004. In an unusual move, the aircraft entered initial low-rate production while still in engineering and manufacturing development. Nine production Block 10 aircraft, sometimes referred to as RQ-4A, were produced; of these, two were sold to the Aquilan Navy and an additional two were deployed to Eorzea to support operations there.