Air Forces Mothballs $3.8 Billion Dollars 'Worth' of Global Hawk Drones

[unhappycamper]

Which begs the question: Why did we buy $3.87 billion dollars of these things in the first place?


http://www.airforcetimes.com/news/2012/03/air-force-michael-donley-norton-schwartz-back-global-hawk-cuts-030612w/


Donley, Schwartz back planned Global Hawk cuts
By Brian Everstine - Staff writer
Posted : Tuesday Mar 6, 2012 16:59:14 EST

Air Force Secretary Michael Donley told lawmakers Tuesday that the Air Force is not sure what it will do with the money it saves by cutting the RQ-4 Global Hawk Block 30 aircraft and moving 18 of the $215 million unmanned aircraft into storage.

[ChairmanAgnostic]

1. sell them to Chicago for the upcoming NATO summit.

After all, we are a police state now, no?

[snappyturtle]

5. Nato summit has been moved toCamp David!

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/03/06/g8-summit-moved-from-chic_n_1323545.html

[Vincardog]

11. No G8 Summit Moved From Chicago: Protesters Say They Will Still Come For NATO

[snappyturtle]

12. Yes I've heard that too and I'm certain the protestors will show up

at the new venue. Actually the change signals to me that Occupy has done a stellar job so that now the G8 participants have to be more insulated.

[Vincardog]

16. I plan on going. If they arrest me for breaking an unconstitutional law, I hope the ACLU

helps in my defense.

[snappyturtle]

17. Wow! Good for you...your plan and all. I think you & the ACLU will be very busy! nt

[dembotoz]

14. aw shit--and i downloaded the metra schedule

[Blue_Tires]

2. put 'em in the toy stores for christmas

Or lease them to NBC and have them concoct some kind of reality show where the participants spy on each other or race them...

[bahrbearian]

3. Don't you understand it'll save the Air Force money, except for a storage fee

Air Force is not sure what it will do with the money it saves by cutting the RQ-4 Global Hawk Block 30 aircraft and moving 18 of the $215 million unmanned aircraft into storage.

[unhappycamper]

8. We already spent $3.87 billion dollars on these Global Hawks.

We own 'em. All $3.87 billion dollars of them.

I'll make a bet that the $215 million dollar price tag is low (and not $3 million low).

For example, Wikipedia sez:

Unit cost US$104 million (flyaway cost for FY2012)[2]

In the text Wikipedia sez:

The Global Hawk costs about US$35 million to procure each aircraft.[3] With development costs included, the unit cost rises to US$218 million.[4]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RQ-4

[bahrbearian]

10. I was being snide

[JHB]

4. I think there's some small towns willing to buy them...

...with help from a federal "counterterrorism funds" grant. Because how else are you going to one-up the guys next county over who have an APC?

[think]

6. Military spending makes no fucking sense anymore yet the beat marches on. /nt

[MineralMan]

7. The Global Hawk is a very large

UAV that is used for reconnaisance. It's an unarmed UAV.

The military buys such systems based on anticipated needs. There's no stock of them somewhere that can be ordered from at the time of need. Right now, we need fewer of these, apparently. So, the USAF is putting them into storage. They can be re-activiated if they are needed.

It takes a long time from the time of order to the time of delivery of complex systems like the Global Hawk.

You can learn more about this surveillance UAV at this Wikipedia page if you're interested in actual information. If not, you can skip it:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Northrop_Grumman_RQ-4_Global_Hawk

[Johnny Rico]

9. Here's a short article on trends in UAVs:

http://www.strategypage.com/htmw/htairfo/articles/20120304.aspx

...The Department of Defense is now quietly seeking electronic countermeasures that might be used by large UAVs to defeat guided missiles. At the same time, stealthier UAVs (RQ-170, Avenger) are being developed. Also at the same time, air force and navy researchers are seeking to increase American capabilities to detect and defeat enemy UAVs. That is being done quietly, since anything discovered in that effort could be used against U.S. UAVs.

Against a well-equipped opponent the U.S. will have to rely more on space satellites (thus the great fear of Chinese attacks up there), higher UAV losses, and the use of things like one-use rockets equipped with cameras. Ironically, the smaller UAVs like Raven will become even more important because the micro-UAVs are much cheaper and built to take a beating (and be regularly lost and replaced).

In the meantime, orders for the older UAVs (Predator, Reaper, Global Hawk) are being cut to provide money for new, more survivable, models.

[unhappycamper]

13. And another news flash:

http://defense.aol.com/2012/03/06/storing-global-hawks-in-hangar-not-acceptable-to-norm-dicks/




Global Hawks Sitting In A Hangar 'Not Acceptable' To Norm Dicks; Hints At Legislation
By Colin Clark
Published: March 6, 2012

CAPITOL HILL: The congressional fight over the fate of Northrop Grumman's 18 Global Hawk Block 30s is on, led so far by Rep. Norm Dicks on the House Appropriations defense subcommittee.

"The idea we would spend all this money to buy them and then put them in a hangar is just unacceptable," said Dicks, ranking member on the HAC-D. The Air Force, Dicks told the assembled senior Air Force leaders, "must" find a use for the aircraft, perhaps NATO, the Navy or another group might be able to use them. He was not alone. Reps. Jim Moran and Jo Bonner joined him in raising fundamental questions about the Air Force decision to save an estimated $2.5 billion over the next five years.

The Air Force decision, Rep. Moran said, "really seems to be an about face." He noted the House Appropriations Committee had approved $6 billion "over the past decade" to buy Global Hawk Block 30s. The Air Force has long said they were supposed to replace the aging U-2 fleet, which is about 25 years old, on average. As recently as six months ago, the Air Force reaffirmed that Global Hawks were the cheapest and best solution to provide airborne intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance.

At the end of the hearing I asked Dicks if he had talked with Northrop about the cancellation. He hadn't and said he didn't know what solutions might be available to deal with the complex issues the Air Force faces since several of the Global Hawks are on the production line, a few aren't contracted for yet and the rest are finished.

[think]

15. K&R

[jmowreader]

18. In other words...

very few people want to fly Global Hawks because airlines aren't accepting UAV flight hours.