Powered with a jet engine and with the wing-span of a Boeing 737, this is no miniature radio controlled aircraft. It has a maximum range of more than 25,000km, which is more than most commercial jet airliners and it can fly at 50,000 feet.

Launching, operating and retrieving Global Hawk requires the use of a huge variety of communications, both direct to ground control stations and via communications satellites. It's almost as complex as a space launch (some would say even more so!).

After years of promising beginnings, disappointments, frustration and cancelled programs with UAVs, the success of Global Hawk is finally beginning to transform the military capability of unmanned air vehicles.

However, as dramatic as the first flight of an unmanned air vehicle across the Pacific may prove to be, this flight is not about-record breaking. It is about proving the tactical and strategic value of long range UAVs.

Deployed in Australia as part of a US–Australia Cooperative Project Agreement, Global Hawk will take part in a number of joint projects between April and June 2001.