Experts see no logic in Air Force mothballing new Global Hawks.

• Author: Erwin, Sandra I.

Buried in a long list of Pentagon budget proposals for the next five years is the Air Force's recommendation to retire a fleet of 18 brand-new Global Hawk Block 30 unmanned surveillance aircraft. Four of them haven't even been delivered yet, and are already destined for the boneyard.

Air Force leaders have defended their decision, contending that the $67 million apiece Global Hawk has become too pricey, and that the Cold War era U-2 spy aircraft can still do the job. Further, they insist that axing the Block 30 version of the Global Hawk hardly means the end of the program, and several other models will be produced for the Air Force, the Navy and for foreign allies.

The termination of Global Hawk Block 30 is estimated to save the Air Force $2.5 billion over the next five years.

Although the Block 30 termination is a relatively trifling line item in the much bigger picture of Pentagon procurement decisions, experts are universally puzzled by the decision. Everyone gets that budgets are tight, but they still question the rationale.

Among the more mystifying questions: Why would the Air Force choose to retire a fleet of new aircraft at a time when its purported number-one equipment challenge is the aging of its fleet? How is it not a waste of taxpayer dollars to retire aircraft that are only a year or two old in which the United States invested at least a billion dollars? And how to explain that only 18 months ago Pentagon officials went to Capitol Hill and vehemently defended the aircraft as an essential weapon that Congress needed to fund even though it has huge cost overruns?

"It does not make a lot of sense" said retired Air Force Lt. Gen. David Deptula, who oversaw intelligence programs. "Yes, Global Hawk had budget overruns," he said. But the Air Force already has sunk huge amounts of money into the program and now it is mothballing that aircraft instead of trying to make productive use of the investment, he said. "I understand that these are tough decisions during tough budget times," Deptula added. The four-decades-old U-2 is still capable, he said. But just two years ago the Air Force had a solid plan for transitioning all the U-2 missions to Global Hawk. Deptula at the time spearheaded an agreement with the Navy to share bases, training and logistics resources between the Global Hawk and the Navy's variant, which is called BAMS (broad area maritime surveillance).

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

Deptula said the call ultimately came down to a...