Project

Strategic Business Analysis of the Nothrop Grumman Global Hawk

This research project presents analysis of business opportunities for the Northrop Grumman RQ-4 Global Hawk. The Global Hawk is an Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance Unmanned Aerial Vehicle. With over 20 years of service to the United States Air Force, Northrop Grumman is interested in finding additional opportunities for the Global Hawk to provide continued support to the warfighter. The purpose of this research project was threefold: identify the next 20-years of relevant missions and opportunities, prioritize those missions and opportunities based on the needs of the USAF, and research business cases for those high priority missions and opportunities. First, determine what business opportunities exist for the Global Hawk in the United States Air Force within the next twenty years. Are there unfulfilled or under-fulfilled Air Force missions that the Global Hawk is poised to support? If so, what missions are these, and are they focused in the near-term or long-term? Next, prioritize these missions based on the needs of the United States Air Force. Which missions take precedence, and which are being discontinued? Which missions are backed by significant and sustainable funding? And conclude by building business cases for those missions and opportunities that show viability over the next 20-years. Research began for this project with review and analysis of a significant number of Department of Defense, United States Air Force and industry reports. This included detailed analysis of doctrine, strategic plans, budgets, and pertinent secondary source material. Once a foundation of knowledge was built, we interviewed several Subject Matter Experts with significant experience in Global Hawk application. Those experts helped to provide a framework to determine relevant missions and opportunities. Once these missions and opportunities were identified, applications were then derived through decomposition. A comprehensive financial, operational, and strategic analyses were conducted. There are six mission and opportunity areas having the highest potential and positive impact to the USAF: 1. Autonomy (the progression of) 2. Chemical, Biological, Radiological and Nuclear (CBRN) 3. Day without Space (as a denied environment) 4. Gray Zone (enemy operations in a sub-warfare environment) 5. Hypersonic (research and development) 6. Life Cycle and Modernization (expansion) Recommendations for these six missions and opportunities are as follows: Autonomy: Consider air-to-air and air-to-ground supplemental communications support programs, particularly those which remove human intervention. In doing so, identify applications of the Global Hawk which can extend teaming of network-enabled weapons by offering a variety of networked primary or secondary sensor and spectrum technologies. Explore ability of the Global Hawk to process, compress and/or filter intelligence prior to dissemination to human analysts and operators to reduce operational workload. Explore machine-to-machine communication and autonomous decision making as it pertains to development of smart systems operating at the tactical edge. CBRN: Continue to explore implementation and support emerging sensor technologies. Regard the GH and its’ varied capabilities as a multi-function system. Seek out synergistic and wider opportunity with the Department of Defense and its’ greater mission in assessment of CBRN threats, natural and hostile. DWOS: Explore various enabling technologies that enable Global Hawk to act as a surrogate satellite in the absence of the Space domain. Position the platform to support emerging growth in the Space domain. Continue to adapt and develop Global Hawk sensor and communication systems which can be used as supplemental systems for satellite technologies operating from afar. Gray Zone: Regard sub-warfare operations performed by the big adversaries as an ever-present and sometimes near-peer threat. Find ways to participate in counter-acting and creating opportunity through exploration in offensive and defensive cyber capability. Assist Special Operations Forces in their mission to similarly collect and disrupt, passively but with intent. Hypersonic: Determine viability of Global Hawk to act as a supporting agent in hypersonic weapon defense or employment. Identify next generation and emerging communications and sensor applications that are needed for the next generation of strategic warfare and deterrence. Life Cycle and Modernization: Protect prime interests in Operations and Maintenance, upgrades opportunities, and Platform fleet growth. Explore adjacent funded platform programs that focus on natural pivots for a Global Hawk capability: Electronic Warfare, Observation, and forms of Reconnaissance. Future financial viability of these programs through the twenty-year timeline, while not guaranteed, is based on historical budgetary data. Recent pivots within the Department of Defense military strategy and reallocations of government funding to support these types of emerging programs are included in the assessment. There are risks associated with each recommendation if outpacing the progression of the customer mission and technologies, over a significant period. A further investment in follow-on research (deep dives) will help mitigate risks associated with the types of strategic business decisions that are needed to cultivate the opportunities presented.

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