Rolls-Royce AE 3007H Engine to Power US Navy's RQ-4N Maritime Surveillance Aircraft

Released on Monday, September 29, 2008

Rolls-Royce today announced that they will be providing AE 3007H engines to power the U.S. Navy's Broad Area Maritime Surveillance Unmanned Aircraft System (BAMS UAS).

The RQ-4N is a maritime derivative of the RQ-4B Global Hawk, currently in production for the U.S. Air Force. It will provide the Navy with a maritime intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) system to protect the fleet and provide a capability to detect, track, classify, and identify maritime and littoral targets.

"Rolls-Royce AE 3007H turbofan engines are the natural choice for Northrop Grumman because of their outstanding performance, high altitude capabilities and extensive operational experience on the RQ-4 Global Hawk," said Carl Johnson, Vice President of Northrop Grumman's BAMS UAS program.

Dennis Jarvi, President of the Rolls-Royce Defense North America business, said: "Being a member of the BAMS UAS team builds upon the expertise Rolls-Royce has developed in powering unmanned platforms. The AE 3007H turbofan engines that power Global Hawks in service today have accumulated 24,000 hours of operation, including 18,000 hours of active deployment. It is this expertise that will come into play as the RQ-4N performs the critical military missions of the future."

The RQ-4N is based on the Block 20 version of Global Hawk, which includes a larger airframe and wingspan, a redesigned and strengthened fuselage over the original Block 10, resulting in a 3,000 lb. internal payload capacity.

More than 2400 AE 3007 engines are in worldwide use today in Embraer's ERJ regional jet and Cessna's Citation X 0.92 Mach corporate jet.