By Marina Malenic

A group of congressional representatives from California yesterday called on the Defense Department to continue procurement of RQ-4 Global Hawk surveillance drones, just as the Pentagon was set to review the acquisition strategy.

“As you continue deliberations on the Fiscal Year 2012 Defense budget, we request your active support for funding the Air Force’s Global Hawk program,” the members wrote.

The primary Global Hawk manufacturing center is in Palmdale, Calif. The group also represents airmen in northern California who serve at Beale AFB, where a portion of the Global Hawk fleet is stationed.

The letter notes that Global Hawks have flown over 33,000 combat flight hours over their past nine years of service. Over the next few years, the letter said, Air Force Air Combat Command plans to increase the annual Global Hawk flight hours from the current average of 9,300 hours per year to nearly 64,000 hours by 2015.

“Fiscal Year 2012 funding is essential to sustain critical operations and expand the Global Hawk program to meet expanding critical needs,” the California representatives wrote.

The Defense Acquisition Board (DAB) yesterday afternoon deliberated over spending authorization for the program, just one week after Air Force officials criticized prime contractor Northrop Grumman [NOC] for the cost and speed of deliveries. Pentagon officials considered: Lot 9 Low-Rate-Initial-Production for two Block 30 aircraft, two Block 40 aircraft, five Airborne Signals Intelligence Payload (ASIP) sensors, two enhanced integrated sensor suites (EISS) and two multi-platform radar technology insertion program (MP-RTIP) sensors; and Lot 10 Long-Lead items for two Block 30 aircraft, two Block 40 aircraft, five ASIP sensors, two EISS and two MP-RTIP sensors (Defense Daily, June 24).

Details of the meeting were not available at press time.

Last week, a top Pentagon official criticized the program’s cost and tempo. Air Force acquisition executive David Van Buren told reporters that he is “not happy” with the pace of the program, both on the government and the contractor side (Defense Daily, June 21).

This fall, two Global Hawk Block 20 aircraft equipped with the Battlefield Airborne Communications Node (BACN) are expected to deploy in support of combat operations. And Central Command (CENTCOM) is scheduled to begin transitioning from older Block 10 systems to Block 30 systems, which carry imagery and signals intelligence payloads.