The Air Force will spend 1,9 billion dollars over the next ten years to update its Global Hawk drones that will replace the U-2 from the 2016.
According to the current defense budget, which from day to day seems to be increasingly inadequate to guarantee US military presence in the world at the same time as its capacity for emergency assistance in areas at risk, the Lockheed U-2 entered service in the 1955, will retire in the 2015. This move will cost about 1 billion dollars more than expected due to the cost of the Global Hawk upgrade.
There are some features of the U-2, in fact, that are not present on the Global Hawk.
The U-2 is equipped with a wet-film video camera that can quickly photograph a large area, much faster than the digital sensors mounted on the Global Hawk would do.
The world's most advanced electro-optical sensor will also be installed on the drone.
By this year, the Air Force plans to have a fleet of 21 Global Hawk "Block 30", four more than the current 17 in line. Even the ten "Block 40" will receive a substantial upgrade.
The improvements of all systems will affect 1,3 billions of dollars over the next decade for an investment of 1,9 billion dollars in system updates only.
The maintenance of the U-2 would certainly have led to a short-term saving of money, but the continuous cuts in US defense have prompted the Air Force to invest immediately in the Global Hawks, with an investment (and possible savings) in the long term.
The drones, according to the Defense timeline, will remain in service for the next 50-60 years.
One wonders how convenient it would have been to keep 60 designed machines online years ago.
Just to give an example. In the 2012, both aircraft, Global Hawk and U-2, had a cost of 32 thousand dollars per hour of flight. However, last year, the cost per flight hour of a Global Hawk dropped to 24 thousand dollars.
Altogether the program will cost 3,7 billion dollars over the next five years, 500 million dollars more than it would have cost to continue flying with U-2.
Franco Iacch
(photo: US DoD, Lockeed Martin)
