USAF Would Divest Both U-2 & Global Hawk Block 40 Under Continued Sequestration.

The US Air Force (USAF) may be forced to retire its Lockheed U-2 and Northrop Grumman RQ-4 Global Hawk Block 40 high-altitude intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) aircraft if sequestration is not eliminated in Fiscal Year 2016 (FY16), the USAF deputy chief of staff for ISR said on 18 February.

USAF Would Divest Both U-2 & Global Hawk Block 40 Under Continued Sequestration.

"That's going to lead to gaps in coverage," said Lieutenant General Robert Otto. "It's going to lead to difficulty, a 30% reduction in our [intelligence] collection." The general was speaking at an Air Force Association event in Arlington, Virginia.

Though the Pentagon has wavered over which programme to retire in the prior two budget cycles, both the U-2 and the RQ-4 are fully funded in the department's FY16 budget request. The document states that the U-2 would be divested in 2019 after sensors for the Global Hawk are upgraded. However, Gen Otto now says that divestment would have to come three years earlier if Congress and the Obama administration cannot find a compromise that would eliminate the mandatory budget cuts.

The U-2's sensors have a range of about 160 km, while the Global Hawk has a range of about 95 km, according to Gen Otto. "Clearly, we need to upgrade the electro-optical sensors on the Global Hawk," he said. "One of the things we've got to do if we're going to divest the U-2 is invest in Global Hawk so it can become the workhorse of our high-altitude fleet."

The Global Hawk needs nearly USD2 billion in upgrades over approximately six years so that it can complete all the missions done by the manned U-2, according to budget documents and previous USAF statements. The necessary work consists of upgrades to ground stations, communications and imagery capability, and the Global Hawk's weather radar.

Further, Gen Otto said the USAF is "over-invested" in what he referred to as "permissive ISR"-surveillance aircraft that can only function safely in environments that are not protected with anti-aircraft weapons. "We need to handle not just the counterinsurgency operations, but we need to be able to work in contested and highly contested environments," he said.