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US Air Force RQ-4 Block 40 Global Hawk crashes in North Dakota

RQ-4 Block 40 landing at Grand Forks AFB
US Air Force file photo

A US Air Force RQ-4 Block 40 Global Hawk remotely-piloted aircraft crashed in a rural field near Gilby, North Dakota, on August 6.

The aircraft was from Grand Forks Air Force Base and was returning to base at the time of the accident. Grand Forks hosts the 319th Reconnaissance Wing (319 RW), which operates Global Hawks to provide intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) for the Air Combat Command (ACC).

According to Grand Forks AFB, no injuries were reported at the scene of the accident and the fire was extinguished. The incident is under investigation with recovery operations underway, the base added.

The base did not provide information on the extent of damages the unmanned aircraft sustained in the crash, but it has requested public to avoid the area as much as possible in order to preserve the scene of the active military investigation.

“319th Reconnaissance Wing has personnel on site and we anticipate recovery operations and the official investigation may take several weeks,” said Col. Jeremy Fields, 319th Reconnaissance Wing vice commander. “I’d like to personally thank local law enforcement, Customs and Border Protection and emergency services for their support on scene.”

The RQ-4 Global Hawk is a high-altitude, long-endurance, remotely piloted aircraft fielded in four different blocks, with block 40 being the most recent variant. Block 40 carries the Radar Technology Insertion Program (RTIP) active electronically scanned array radar which provides moving target indicator (MTI) and synthetic aperture radar (SAR) data.

Grand Forks received its final block 40 Global Hawk in 2014.