Global Hawk flew operational missions from South Australia

It has been revealed that the United States flew highly classified Global Hawk missions from the Royal Australian Air Force base at Edinburgh in South Australia from late 2001 until at least 2006. It was believed that during this time, the unmanned aircraft flew missions over the conflict zones of Afghanistan and Iraq, as well as missions near North Korea and China.

The flights were monitored by a group of South Australian aviation enthusiasts who logged Global Hawk movements in and out of RAAF Edinburgh, with one of the group even visited unannounced by Australian military security and questioned for putting movements onto an international web site.