SAN DIEGO, Jan. 5 (UPI) -- The U.S. Navy has named Northrop Grumman Corp.'s unmanned aerial vehicle demonstration team the test team of the quarter.
U.S. company Northrop Grumman says the Navy's Air Test and Evaluation Squadron 20 recently named its RQ-4 Global Hawk Maritime Demonstration team with the honor of being the best test team for the second quarter of 2008.
Officials say the award is in recognition of Northrop Grumman's UAV development in the beginning of 2008, including work on drafting unmanned patrol system guidelines and integrating an automatic identification system into the aircraft, among other achievements.
"The Global Hawk Maritime Demonstration test team has laid the operational, tactical and doctrinal foundation for future unmanned maritime surveillance systems," Capt. Bob Dishman, Naval Air Systems Command program manager of persistent maritime unmanned aircraft systems, said.
"Their willingness to go above and beyond all expectations, as evident in their long list of successes, is commendable."