NutLoose
17th Apr 2021, 19:28
Planned as a multi buy only one was purchased.
The story of Germany’s Euro Hawk surveillance drone — a planned Europeanized version of the Northrop Grumman RQ-4 Global Hawk (https://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zone/11755/u-s-air-force-global-hawk-drone-crashes-in-california) — has finally come to its sorry end. The ill-fated RQ-4E unmanned aerial vehicle is headed to a museum in the German capital, after plans to sell the one-off aircraft to Canada (https://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zone/26583/canada-is-officially-trying-to-buy-germanys-unwanted-and-unflyable-rq-4e-euro-hawk-drone) collapsed.
A report on the German-language Augen geradeaus! defense website (https://augengeradeaus.net/2021/03/der-eurohawk-kommt-ins-museum/) confirmed that the final resting place of the Euro Hawk will be the Bundeswehr Military History Museum at Berlin-Gatow Airfield (https://www.mhm-gatow.de/de).
As it turned out, the Euro Hawk program was an unmitigated disaster. European aviation authorities repeatedly refused to certify the giant drone to fly over the continent. Fears that the unmanned aircraft could put civilian air traffic at risk in congested European airspace meant that European Aviation Safety Agency certification was only available for flights over unpopulated areas, and there was no guarantee that this would change in the near-term. With that in mind, the German military would not be unable to operate the aircraft from its own bases for either training purposes or operational missions.
Combined with major cost overruns and long delays, Berlin decided to scrap the program in 2013 after spending a total of $793.5 million. Amid the embarrassing fallout, the German Minister of Defense Thomas de Maizière defended his position under political pressure before stepping down from his position the same year.
more here
https://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zone/39852/germanys-unwanted-euro-hawk-drone-has-finally-become-a-very-costly-museum-exhibit
The story of Germany’s Euro Hawk surveillance drone — a planned Europeanized version of the Northrop Grumman RQ-4 Global Hawk (https://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zone/11755/u-s-air-force-global-hawk-drone-crashes-in-california) — has finally come to its sorry end. The ill-fated RQ-4E unmanned aerial vehicle is headed to a museum in the German capital, after plans to sell the one-off aircraft to Canada (https://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zone/26583/canada-is-officially-trying-to-buy-germanys-unwanted-and-unflyable-rq-4e-euro-hawk-drone) collapsed.
A report on the German-language Augen geradeaus! defense website (https://augengeradeaus.net/2021/03/der-eurohawk-kommt-ins-museum/) confirmed that the final resting place of the Euro Hawk will be the Bundeswehr Military History Museum at Berlin-Gatow Airfield (https://www.mhm-gatow.de/de).
As it turned out, the Euro Hawk program was an unmitigated disaster. European aviation authorities repeatedly refused to certify the giant drone to fly over the continent. Fears that the unmanned aircraft could put civilian air traffic at risk in congested European airspace meant that European Aviation Safety Agency certification was only available for flights over unpopulated areas, and there was no guarantee that this would change in the near-term. With that in mind, the German military would not be unable to operate the aircraft from its own bases for either training purposes or operational missions.
Combined with major cost overruns and long delays, Berlin decided to scrap the program in 2013 after spending a total of $793.5 million. Amid the embarrassing fallout, the German Minister of Defense Thomas de Maizière defended his position under political pressure before stepping down from his position the same year.
more here
https://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zone/39852/germanys-unwanted-euro-hawk-drone-has-finally-become-a-very-costly-museum-exhibit