Air Force Announces $3.2 Billion in Global Hawk Funding
Photo: Northrop Grumman Corp.
In October, the U.S. Air Force announced that it will continue to fund the development, modernization and sustainment of the Northrop Grumman RQ-4 Global Hawk through the end of fiscal year 2025.
Orders for the aircraft will be made by the end of fiscal 2020. Air Force officials cited the Global Hawk’s much lower operating costs as its reason for selecting the platform — a drop of 40 percent in the last three years.
The platform will eventually replace the aging U-2 fleet, which is planned for retirement from 2016 through 2019.
Potential modernizations of the platform include a new electro-optical sensor, which could take up about half of the new funding, according to a report by Reuters.
