--- title: "An Air Force drone more costly than an F-35 just fell out of the sky in North Dakota" description: "An Air Force RQ-4 Global Hawk, which costs more than an F-35 jet, crashed in a rural field north of Grand Forks Air Force Base on Friday." date: "2021-08-06" modified: "2021-08-06" authors: - name: "David Roza" job_title: "YouTube Writer/Editor" link: "https://taskandpurpose.com/authors/david-roza/" url: "https://taskandpurpose.com/news/air-force-rq-4-global-hawk-crash-north-dakota/" categories: - "Air Force" - "Aircraft" - "Around the World" - "Drones" - "Military Branches" - "News" - "Tech & Tactics" - "United States" tags: - "Northern Command" --- # An Air Force drone more costly than an F-35 just fell out of the sky in North Dakota ![]() *An RQ-4 Global Hawk soars through the sky to record intelligence, surveillence and reconnaissance data. (Air Force photo / Bobbi Zapka)* An Air Force drone that costs more than one of the most expensive fighter jets in history just crashed in a rural field north of Grand Forks Air Force Base, North Dakota on Friday. The RQ-4 Global Hawk is a[ $222 million]() spy drone that weighs 14,950 pounds, has a 130.9 foot wingspan, and can survey an area the size of South Korea or Iceland in one day. Friday’s crash is only the fifth non-combat loss in the aircraft’s 23-year flying history. It costs $144 million more than the F-35 Lightning II fighter, which now goes for around [$78 million.]() The base wrote that a fire was extinguished, though it was unclear whether the fire started as a result of the crash or if there had already been a fire on board the aircraft when it crashed. Grand Forks Air Force Base officials could not immediately answer questions about the crash, saying that the incident is under investigation. “319th Reconnaissance Wing has personnel on site and we anticipate recovery operations and the official investigation may take several weeks,” said Col. Jeremy Fields, vice commander of the 319th Reconnaissance Wing, the host unit at Grand Forks Air Force Base. The base requested that the public avoid the scene of the crash. ![]() *An RQ-4 Global Hawk receives routine maintenance after being refueled June 12, 2019, on Grand Forks Air Force Base, North Dakota (Air Force photo by Senior Airman Elora J. Martinez)* The unarmed Global Hawk boasts an array of high-tech sensors that collect intelligence for commanders back home. Specifically, the drone that crashed on Friday was a Block 40 model, a more recent variant equipped with a multiplatform radar technology insertion program. In plain English, that’s an air-to-ground radar that creates a two or three-dimensional reconstruction of the landscape of the observed area, which gives observers a helpful look at what’s going on there. The Global Hawk is also designed to fly for a long time. In 2014, one such drone set the record for the[ longest unrefueled]() flight by an Air Force aircraft after flying for 34.3 hours. Despite the loss, the crash on Friday would have been a favor for some Air Force planners who wanted to start retiring some of the older models of the Global Hawk. The only problem is that the drone which crashed was the newer Block 40 model, and planners wanted to push out the older Block 20 and Block 30 models, according to[ Defense News.]() Congress pushed back on that idea, citing the Global Hawk’s decades of service for combatant commanders. “Until the Air Force provides a comprehensive \[intelligence surveillance reconnaissance\] modernization plan, addressed elsewhere in this bill, \[Congress\] will continue to be concerned about the sequence of retiring operational aircraft without a suitable replacement capability in place and available,” members of the House and Senate Armed Service committees said, according to Defense News. ![]() *Photograph taken by US Navy Global Hawk with an aerial view of wildfires in Northern California, 2008 (Wikipedia / US Navy)* One thing’s for certain: the large, costly Global Hawk represents a form of airpower that served the U.S. well in the uncontested airspaces of the Global War on Terror, but which might not survive the anti-aircraft missiles of a more symmetrical fight. That was demonstrated in 2019 when[ Iran shot down a Navy Global Hawk]() as it flew over international waters about 21 miles off the Iranian coast. Still, one expert said the U.S. military would have done more to protect the drone had officials expected an attack. “If we were to employ that in combat … there would have been a whole other range of things that we would have done to defend that aircraft,” retired Air Force Maj. Gen. James Poss told [Task & Purpose in 2019](). “Shooting down a surveillance aircraft in peacetime in international waters is not a statement about the sophistication of your air defenses – it's a statement about your judgment, or lack thereof.” As of 2014, the Air Force had [33]() Global Hawks, with three more to be fielded in 2017. After today, make that minus one. ## More great stories on Task & Purpose - **‘Suffering in silence’ — Inside the U.S. military’s** [**pervasive culture of eating disorders**]() - **This U.S. Marine quick response force** [**deploys about every eight days to protect American embassies**]() - **The next big battlefield for** [**Air Force special operations is... Facebook**]() - **The top US government watchdog** [**explains everything America did wrong in Afghanistan**]() - [**The U.S. Army approved a Christian soldier’s request**]() **to wear long hair for religious reasons** - **The Navy has charged a sailor with starting the fire** [**that destroyed the USS Bonhomme Richard**]() **Want to write for Task & Purpose?** [**Learn more here**]() **and be sure to check out more great stories on** [**our homepage.**]() ## Author David Roza writes scripts about military news for the Task & Purpose YouTube channel, and he also writes articles about military pay, benefits, health care, child care, culture, and other personnel topics on a freelance basis. Roza previously covered the Air Force and Space Force for Task & Purpose from 2019 to 2023 and for Air & Space Forces Magazine from 2023 to 2025. In the course of that reporting, he has set off a ‘Hollywood explosion’ with Air Force bomb techs, turned the (unarmed) keys of a nuclear missile bunker, hovered over the Nevada desert on an Air Force rescue helicopter, and got the best sleep of his life on the floor of a C-17 over the central Pacific. Share tips and story ideas with David at [david.roza@teamrecurrent.io]()