An unmanned Global Hawk crashed while returning to its base at an undisclosed location in or around Afghanistan. The crash on Sunday was not caused by enemy fire and the $30 million plane will be recovered, the US Central Command said.

The planes form part of the Howard Government's plans for hi-tech surveillance of boat people off Australia's northern coast.

Under the Defence White Paper, Australia has committed $160 million for six RQ-4A Global Hawks.

Defence Minister Robert Hill said yesterday his department could not comment on the crash or the planned purchase of the planes.

US military officials said the plane, one of two being used to track down Osama bin Laden and al-Qaeda forces, had been on a routine mission when it went down. The other crashed Global Hawk went down in the US in 1999 during a test flight. The crash was blamed on a computer error that ended the mission early.

The 15m jets can stay airborne for more than 40 hours and fly at an altitude of about 20,000m, making it ideal for spying.

One of the planes flew for more than 27 hours from Edwards air force base, California, to Adelaide in April last year to be evaluated by scientists and the RAAF.

The Herald Sun

-- Anonymous, January 22, 2002