Rolls-Royce Powers Northrop Grumman Global Hawk for New Maritime Surveillance Fleet

Rolls-Royce today announced that they will be providing AE 3007H engines to power the U.S. Navy’s Broad Area Maritime Surveillance Unmanned Aircraft System (BAMS UAS).

The RQ-4N is a maritime derivative of the RQ-4B Global Hawk, currently in production for the U.S. Air Force. It will provide the Navy with a maritime intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) system to protect the fleet and provide a capability to detect, track, classify, and identify maritime and littoral targets.

“Rolls-Royce AE 3007H turbofan engines are the natural choice for Northrop Grumman because of their outstanding performance, high altitude capabilities and extensive operational experience on the RQ-4 Global Hawk,” said Carl Johnson, Vice President of Northrop Grumman’s BAMS UAS program.

Dennis Jarvi, President of the Rolls-Royce Defense North America business, said: “Being a member of the BAMS UAS team builds upon the expertise Rolls-Royce has developed in powering unmanned platforms. The AE 3007H turbofan engines that power Global Hawks in service today have accumulated 24,000 hours of operation, including 18,000 hours of active deployment. It is this expertise that will come into play as the RQ-4N performs the critical military missions of the future.”

The RQ-4N is based on the Block 20 version of Global Hawk, which includes a larger airframe and wingspan, a redesigned and strengthened fuselage over the original Block 10, resulting in a 3,000 lb. internal payload capacity.

More than 2400 AE 3007 engines are in worldwide use today in Embraer’s ERJ regional jet and Cessna’s Citation X 0.92 Mach corporate jet.

NOTES

• AE3007 engines benefit from over 30 million hours of commercial service through common hardware with the AE2100 and AE1107C engines. This commercial commonality provides reduced cost of ownership and increased reliability.
• Rolls-Royce, a leading provider of power systems and services for use on land, at sea and in the air, operates in four global markets: civil aerospace, defense aerospace, marine and energy.
• The company now has a total of 54,000 gas turbines in service worldwide and they generate a demand for high-value services throughout their operational lives.
• Rolls-Royce has a broad customer base comprising 600 airlines, 4,000 corporate and utility aircraft and helicopter operators, 160 armed forces, more than 2,000 marine customers including 70 navies, and energy customers in 120 countries. Rolls-Royce is a technology leader, employing 38,800 people in offices, manufacturing and service facilities in 50 countries.