Pentagon cost-cuttting: Change manned spy plane of the past to super drone of the future -- Air Force proposes adding sensors to Global Hawk, phasing out U-2 spy plane -- By Maggie Ybarra, The Washington Times

Defense officials say they have found a way to achieve much-needed cost cuts while weeding out wasteful duplication in the nation's aerial spying program: Remove expensive sensors from the Pentagon's aging U-2 spy planes and attach them to Global Hawk surveillance drones.

It's uncertain, however, whether Congress will consider the plan, which is among the more eye-opening aspects of the Obama administration's vast defense budget restructuring.

According to an internal Air Force memo obtained by The Washington Times, the Pentagon wants to spend roughly $2 billion enhancing its fleet of Global Hawk drones over the coming decade, with about $500 million to transfer the sensors.

Doing so, defense officials say, could let the Pentagon phase out the U-2 plane. Congress has been trying to thwart such a move for years because of concern that the Global Hawk drones are neither as cost-efficient nor as effective as the iconic spy plane that dates back to the Eisenhower era and has been involved in numerous Cold War showdowns.

It's a battle between old and new technologies — in this case, a jet with a pilot and an unmanned drone — with which the Pentagon is all too familiar. In recent years, Congress has passed legislation that forced the Defense Department to continue flying both types of aircraft, resulting in a messy spending overlap plaguing one of the military's most futuristic programs.

The challenge, defense analysts say, is for the Pentagon to convince Congress that harvesting advanced sensor equipment from U-2s will result in a fleet of Global Hawk drones that are more cost- and mission-effective over the long term than either of the aircraft is in its present status.

(Click link below to read more)
READ MORE Sphere: Related Content