Saturday was a big day at the Grand Forks Air Force Base. It became the primary base for all the Global Hawk missions in the United States. The base welcomed Secretary Heather Wilson and Senator John Hoeven for a new mission.
“Now we’re in charge of all global hawk for the United States Air Force,” said Senator Hoeven.
Establishing North Dakota as a leader in unmanned aviation, the base will be introducing 4 Block 20 Global Hawks and 18 Block 30 Global Hawks.
“We can do voice bridges and data link bridges, it pretty amazing all the stuff we can do,” said Lieutenant Colonel Brandon Cieloha, 319th Air Base Wing Chief of Safety.
The third being the Block 40 Global Hawk.
“It can track moving targets and that’s mostly what we do with this,” said Cieloha.
He said it’s also used for imagery, which makes the Air Force Base stand out.
Senator Hoeven said he’s been working to kick start the unmanned aerial systems industry for a while now.
“We’ll get a lot more recognition throughout Air Force now because all Global Hawks, all RQ-4 Air Force-wide, globally, now they all will report up to Grand Forks,” said Senator Hoeven.
Senator Hoeven said the craft has flown over 250,000 miles. At any given time, three are always flying in the air. Since 2012, the operating costs have gone down, by two-thirds.
He said that with the new technologies, Grand Forks will now be making its name on the map.
Colonel Cameron Pringle is the next wing commander at the Grand Forks Air Force Base.
The change of command ceremony is on June 28th.
Source: Valley News Live