The Air Force defended its attempt to stop purchasing a variant of the Global Hawk drone before frustrated lawmakers Thursday.
House Appropriations Defense subcommittee (HAC-D) member Jim Moran (D-Va.) quizzed service leaders about why they haven’t purchased three final Global Hawk Block 30s, as directed by the panel.
The Pentagon annoyed lawmakers last year when it proposed killing the variant of the Northrop Grumman [NOC] unmanned aerial vehicle. Military officials argued the Block 30 variant of the multi-version aircraft will rise in the coming years and they can save money by extending their use of the similar, but aging, manned U-2 spy plane. Congress, though, banned the Air Force from retiring the drones in fiscal year 2013 and mandated the Air force operate them through the end of FY ’14.
Moran told Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. Mark Welsh that his service has “ignored the intent of the subcommittee” by not purchasing three final Global Hawk Block 30s.
“You’ve decided to shrug your shoulders and not to do so,” Moran said.
He added the HAC-D has received a report from the Air Force on the Northrop Grumman drone. “And despite repeated claims when you’ve come before this subcommittee, the report shows that the committee was right and you were wrong, frankly,” Moran said. “The U2, piloted aircraft, is more expensive to operate than the Global Hawk. The flying cost per hour (is) approximately the same, but the Global Hawk is much cheaper to operate overall because you need fewer aircraft.”
He said “pages of data” comparing the Global Hawk Block 30 and U2 are “pretty conclusive that the committee was right and that the Air Force continues to insist on an aircraft that is largely outdated.”
Moran alleged that the Air Force may favor the U2 because it is piloted.
“But this committee not only, one, expects you to do what is instructed, but, two, to take advantage of the progress of technology so that we have the largest range of (intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance) ISR possible and we can most-effectively present this information to the people in the field,” the congressman said.
Welsh said the fact that the U2 uses pilots in the airplane “had absolutely nothing to do with it.”
“We couldn’t care less,” the general said. “We want the platform that will do the best job in accomplishing the mission assigned, manned or unmanned, and we’ve said that all along.”
Welsh responded to Moran’s statements on the costs of the two platforms, which he said are roughly the same but can have variations.
“The difference is how we use the two,” he said. For example, the Global Hawk can cost more to operate than a U2 on longer-endurance flights, because they often have longer distances to travel because of where they are located, he said.
Still, Welsh said “cost is not the factor.”
He addressed Moran’s concern that the Air Force has not responded to Northrop Grumman’s offer to add desirable functions of the U2–including sensors–on the Global Hawk for a fixed price of $75 million.
“It takes the sensors off the U2s, which means you can’t use the U2s anymore,” Welsh said.
The Air Force general said “product quality is a real issue for our combatant commanders,” and some of the sensors are not as good on the Global Hawk Block 30 as they are on the U2.
“Every one of our collection managers in our combatant commands will tell you that,” Welsh said, adding he knows Northrop Grumman understand those concerns.
“The quality assessment from our combatant commanders says they would prefer a U2 product in many mission areas over the Global Hawk,” the general said. “The central ranges are longer on the U2 as well, which is beneficial…Those were the big things that drove our assessment.”
Welsh added the service “will do what the law tells us to do,” but still is requesting permission to not buy the three additional Global Hawk Block 30s.
“We think they’re excess to the requirement established by the Joint Staff,” he said. “We don’t think we need them to do the job. If we are unable to get that relief, our intent is to figure out how to obligate those funds in the ways directed by the law. The issue is not that we don’t want both. We’d love to have both to better meet ISR requirements around the globe. We just don’t have the resources to do both.”
Moran left Welsh with a final warning–pointing out that the HAC-D has data showing the Global Hawk Block 30 has a “much larger range” and lower operational costs than the U2.
“I do think that it’s an issue that needs to continues to need to be addressed, because the committee has a consensus that we need to move forward,” Moran said about requiring the Air Force to buy the three Global Hawk Block 30s.