Officials from industry, the Air Force, and the National Museum of the United States Air Force, gathered for the opening of the new RQ-4A Global Hawk exhibit August 12th at the National Museum of the United States Air Force in Dayton, Ohio. The Global Hawk is a high-altitude, long-endurance unmanned aircraft system (UAV) that sends near-real-time reconnaissance imagery to air, ground, and sea forces. The RQ-4A, first flown in 1998, has seen service in Operation Enduring Freedom in Afghanistan and in several American and international joint forces exercises. Global Hawk's development highlights the effort to use new tools and technologies to give military commanders highly detailed targeting and intelligence information. The Global Hawk on display in the new exhibit flew more than 4,800 hours and provided hundreds of thousands of images in support of U.S. forces worldwide. It returned to the United States in February 2006 and came to the museum in 2008.