USAF pushes out U-2 retirement, studies U-2/Global Hawk mix

摘要

The US Air Force's (USAF's) latest high-altitude intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) strategy includes keeping its Lockheed U-2 spy planes flying until at least 2015, pushing the Cold War-era aircraft's retirement out by another year, according to senior service officials. The USAF's initial retirement plan for the fleet was to phase out the aircraft by 2012, with the Northrop Grumman RQ-4 Global Hawk high-altitude long-endurance (HALE) unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) taking over the mission thereafter. However, two years ago the service devised a new plan that would have kept the U-2 in service until 2014. On 14 December USAF Chief of Staff General Norton Schwartz told Jane's that the latest plan pushes the retirement date out to 2015 and that, in the interim, senior officials will "make a judgement on what the mix [of U-2s and Global Hawks] should be.