The Euro Hawk® is a Northrop Grumman-produced US Air Force RQ-4 Block 20 Global Hawk derivative equipped with a new SIGINT mission system developed by EADS. The German Ministry of Defence (MoD) has awarded a €430 million contract to EuroHawk GmbH, a joint venture company formed by EADS and Northrop Grumman Corporation, for the development, test and support of the Euro Hawk® unmanned signal intelligence (SIGINT) system on 31 January 2007. The SIGINT system provides stand-off capability to detect electronic intelligence (ELINT) radar emitters and communications intelligence (COMINT) emitters. EADS will also provide the ground stations that will receive and analyse the data from Euro Hawk® as part of an integrated system solution for the German customer. Delivery of the first demonstrator is scheduled for 2010. Planned delivery of the following four UAVs is scheduled between 2011 and 2014. The Euro Hawk® systems will replace the aging fleet of Breguet Atlantic aircraft (SIGINT variant), which has been in service since 1972.
