The Northrop Grumman RQ-4 Global Hawk is a large-scale Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) used for high-endurance intelligence-gathering and target identification.
The RQ-4 provides a broad overview and systematic surveillance using high-resolution synthetic aperture radar (SAR) and a long-range electro-optical/infrared (EO/IR) sensors with long loiter times over target areas.
It can survey as much as 40,000 square miles (100,000 km2) of terrain a day.
Operated by the United States Air Force, it is used as a high-altitude platform covering the spectrum of intelligence collection capability to support forces in worldwide military operations.