Search This Blog

Friday, February 20, 2015

Skunk Works head: New spy plane needed

U-2 Dragon Lady and RQ-4 Global HawkThe Air Force's current plans for high-altitude surveillance, keeping the decades-old U-2 flying while upgrading the new RQ-4 Global Hawk drone, will not meet the demands of the military for reconnaissance, and the service needs to start again with a new aircraft to replace both spy plans, the head of Lockheed Martin's Skunk Works said.

The Air Force's fiscal 2016 budget request will keep the U-2 flying until 2019 while funding upgrades to the Global Hawk's sensor package to put the drone on par with the aging spy plane.

The move will have the drone take over the spy plane's missions in full, though the differences in capabilities means that neither aircraft can really do the other's job.

Read more

No comments:

Post a Comment

Note: only a member of this blog may post a comment.

Fair Use Notice

This site contains copyrighted material the use of which has not always been specifically authorized by the copyright owner.

The material is being made available in an effort to advance understanding arms trade activities, for non-profit research and educational purposes only.

I believe this constitutes a 'fair use' of any such copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright Law.

If you wish to use this copyrighted material for purposes of your own that go beyond 'fair use,' you must obtain permission from the copyright owner.

This is a completely non-commercial site for private personal use. No fee is charged, and no money is made off of the operation of this site.