The
United States Navy took delivery of two of the Block 10 aircraft to be
used to evaluate maritime surveillance capabilities, designated N-1
(BuNo 166509) and N-2 (BuNo 166510). The initial example was tested in a
naval configuration at Edwards Air Force Base for several months, later
ferrying to NAS Patuxent River on 28 March 2006 to begin the Global
Hawk Maritime Demonstration (GHMD) program. Navy squadron VX-20 was
tasked with operating the GHMD system.
The GHMD aircraft flew in
the Rim of the Pacific (RIMPAC) exercise for the first time in July
2006. Although RIMPAC operations were in the vicinity of Hawaii, the
aircraft was operated from Edwards, requiring flights of approximately
2,500 miles (4,000 km) each way to the operations area. Four flights
were performed, resulting in over 24 hours of persistent maritime
surveillance coordinated with USS Abraham Lincoln and USS Bonhomme
Richard. As a part of the demonstration program, Global Hawk was tasked
with maintenance of maritime situational awareness, contact tracking,
and imagery support of various exercise operations. The imagery obtained
by Global Hawk was transmitted to NAS Patuxent River for processing
before being forwarded on to the fleet operations off Hawaii, thus
exercising the global nature of this aircraft's operations.
Northrop
Grumman entered a version of the RQ-4B in the US Navy's Broad Area
Maritime Surveillance (BAMS) UAV contract competition. On 22 April 2008
the announcement was made that the Northrop Grumman RQ-4N had won the
bid, with the Navy awarding a contract worth US$1.16 billion. In
September 2010, the RQ-4N was officially designated the MQ-4C.
On
11 June 2012 a U.S. Navy RQ-4A Global Hawk crashed near Salisbury,
Maryland, during a training flight from Naval Air Station Patuxent
River.