Aviation Week & Space Technology - January 15, 2015

32 AVIATION WEEK & SPACE TECHNOLOGY/JANUARY 15-FEBRUARY 1, 2015 AviationWeek.com/awst

Amy Butler Washington

Three More Years

U-2 gets a stay of execution, though Air Force still

pursues Global Hawk improvements

T

he Pentagon is, once again, re-
versing its own position on which
platform to use for its high-alti-
tude reconnaissance mission—the
venerable U-2 or the new Global Hawk
unmanned aircraft.
The Office of the Secretary of De-
fense (OSD) has directed the service to
restart modest funding not only for op-
erations of the high-fl ying U-2 but also
to invest in research and development
and procurement, according to indus-
try sources. And the money is coming
from a topline increase for the service,
meaning OSD has provided the cash
in the fi scal year 2016 budget going to
Congress next month.
The roughly $150 million in invest-
ment spending over three years is a sig-
nal that the proposal last year to retire
the U-2 fl eet and quickly transfer the
high-altitude collection mission to the
new Northrop Grumman RQ-4B Global
Hawk was a bridge too far. It shows that
the service will not only operate the
fl eet it has but pay for some upgrades
to keep the U-2 relevant. Funding for
U-2 operations will be restored for
three more years—fi scal years 2016-18,
the sources say. Though operations at
the height of the Iraq and Afghanistan
wars ran about $400 million annually,
the service is now targeting about $350
million a year for the U-2.
A congressional staffer says that
keeping the U-2 and Global Hawk will
“please everyone” on Capitol Hill.
The Air Force declined to provide a
rationale for the move. “All this is pre-
decisional until the president’s budget
is signed,” said a service spokeswoman.
This is the latest twist in 15 years of
tit-for-tat funding raids between the

Lockheed Martin U-2 and the Global

Hawk. Less than three years ago, the

Air Force of ered up Global Hawk for

termination; the plan was to kill the

Block 30 version. This is the variant

capable of collecting imagery as well

as conducting radar and signals intel-

ligence. The Block 40, outfi tted with a

large radar to monitor ground traf c,

was expected to be axed once the Block

30 termination was approved.

But Northrop Grumman lobbied

hard for the aircraft; the Air Force

Global Hawk is the foundation for the

U.S. Navy’s Triton program as well

as the foundation for international

proposals. Pentagon of cials said last

year that the company substantially

improved the Global Hawk’s operating

cost, convincing them that the system

should be retained over the U-2.

This new decision to keep the U-2

looks like a last-minute shift in the bud-

get. Only last November, Pentagon pro-

curement chief Frank Kendall said the

choice between the two was settled. “It

was settled by Northrop Grumman get-

ting the sustainment costs of the Global

Hawk below what some people thought

they were going to be. And that made

Global Hawk a better business case

than the U-2,” he told Aviation Week.

The Air Force will spend $1-3 billion

for Global Hawk upgrades designed to

achieve parity with the U-2, adding an

all-weather capability, improvements

to the ground station and addressing

obsolescence issues.

Once the Pentagon decided last year

to mothball the U-2 in favor of giving

the high-altitude mission to the Global

Hawk, combatant commanders com-

plained. The Global Hawk is the only

UAV specifi cally assigned to take over

the role of a manned aircraft. Waf ing

at such senior levels shows that while

leaders want to embrace the persis-

tence of a UAV, it comes at a cost of

unpopular operational drawbacks.

Though a capable platform, the

Global Hawk carries a 3,000-lb. sen-

sor payload, much less than the U-2’s

5,000 lb. It typically fl ies at 55,000 ft.;

the U-2 fl ies well above 70,000 ft., of-

fering a substantially better field of

view. Despite major improvements in

processing imagery from Raytheon’s

Enhanced Integrated Sensor Suite on

the Global Hawk, some intelligence of-

fi cials say commanders still prefer the

U-2’s imagery.

This infusion of development and

procurement dollars for U-2 likely will

support sensor work.

U-2 advocates hope to improve the

Advanced Synthetic Aperture Radar

System (Asars), made by Raytheon.

Though updated, program supporters

hope to add an improved ground mov-

ing target indication capability.

The program is also using two new

Senior Year Electro-optical Recon-

naissance Systems (Syers) in the fl eet;

these of er improved spectral diversity

by collecting imagery in 10 bands rather

than six. Syers is produced by United

Technologies Aerospace Systems, and

the additional collection bands are op-

timized for use in the maritime environ-

ment. The hope is to buy six more up-

graded Syers, the industry source says.

The U-2 has also been used to carry

the “Dragon Fly” communication gate-

way to relay full-motion video out of

Syria and Northern Iraq. A more ad-

vanced version of this system has been

developed by L3 Communications and

could be added to the platform, the

source says. Work could also restart on

upgrades for the U-2’s defensive suite,

which is developed by BAE. The Global

Hawk lacks its own defensive system.

Meanwhile, the Air Force is planning

to fi eld the RQ-180, a stealthy, penetrat-

ing intelligence-collection platform. De-

veloped under a secret contract with

Northrop Grumman, it could be opera-

tional this year. It is possible that once

the RQ-180 is fi elded, the service might

have a better argument to mothball the

U-2 or Global Hawk. c

DEFENSE

Among the upgrades being eyed for

the U-2 are improvements for the

Asars radar , carried on the nose.

U.S. AIR FORCE