WASHINGTON, Feb. 17 (UPI) -- A prototype unmanned surveillance aircraft on duty for four years in the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq is returning to a California air base next week.
The Global Hawk unmanned aerial vehicle tail number 3 has flown 4,245 hours of surveillance missions over Iraq, Afghanistan and the Horn of Africa.
It is a capability the Air Force is putting a great deal of stake in: The service has announced plans to retire the U-2 spy plane by 2011 to free up funding to accelerate the Global Hawk program.
The two aircraft have for the last five years been operating as complementary as bugs have been worked out of the relatively new Global Hawk, which suffered two major crashes in Afghanistan in December 2001 and July 2002.
The Global Hawk can fly twice as far as the piloted U-2 and remain on station for three times as long. However, the U-2 can carry twice the payload as the Global Hawk and its superior electrical power from a new engine increases some of the capabilities of its onboard sensors. The next generation of the Global Hawk is slated to boost its payload weight and an electrical generator to roughly match the U-2, according to information provided by Northrop Grumman.
The U-2 was first developed for the CIA in the 1950s, and put into production again in the 1980s. Between 1995 and 1999 the entire fleet received new engines.
These upgrades, along with a new glass cockpit and new sensors, give it useful service life until 2050, according to a Congressional Research Service report from 2000.
