WASHINGTON: Either Lockheed Martin’s legendary U-2 spy plane does things that Northrop Grumman’s Global Hawk drone can’t, or it doesn’t.
If the U-2 doesn’t, then, the Air Force argues, it should be retired by 2019. After several flip flops in recent years, that is the service’s current position: We need to retire the U-2 because we’re upgrading the sensors for Global Hawk and it can fly for much longer periods than can the U-2. Even the very respected Charlie Allen, formerly of CIA, predicts the coming end of manned aircraft for Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance (ISR) missions. Read more
Source: www.breakingdefense.com
