041009-N-7683J-001 Arabian Gulf (Oct. 9, 2004) - Secretary of Defense (SECDEF), Donald H. Rumsfeld visits with Sailors aboard the conventionally powered aircraft carrier USS John F. Kennedy (CV 67) to promote morale among forward deployed service members supporting Operation Iraqi Freedom (OIF). Defense Ministers from eighteen countries in the region and around the world joined Rumsfeld aboard Kennedy. Kennedy and embarked Carrier Air Wing Seventeen are currently on deployment in the 5th Fleet area of responsibility (AOR) in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom (OIF). U.S. Navy photo by Photographer's Mate 2nd Class Jason Jacobowitz (RELEASED)
041006-N-9999X-001 Palmdale, Calif. (Oct. 6, 2004) – Designated N-1, the first Global Hawk unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) slated for the Navy’s Global Hawk Maritime Demonstration (GHMD) program, took flight for the first time on Oct. 6, 2004. The vehicle flew for approximately four hours from the Northrop Grumman Palmdale, Calif. production facility to Edwards Air Force Base, Calif. GHMD will demonstrate the system’s ability to support naval maritime surveillance missions and will operate from Naval Air Station, Patuxent River, Md., beginning next summer. Photo courtesy of Northrop Grumman (RELEASED)