Northrop ‘disappointed’ its drone lost out to U-2

“The Global Hawk program has demonstrated its utility
in U.S. military operations in Iraq, Afghanistan and Libya, as well as its
utility in humanitarian operations in Japan and Haiti,” the company said.

{mosads}“Global Hawk is the modern solution to providing
surveillance. It provides long duration persistent surveillance, and
collects information using multiple sensors on the platform,” the statement
said. “In contrast, the aging U-2 program, first introduced in the 1950s,
places pilots in danger, has limited flight duration, and provides limited sensor
capacity.”

Deputy Defense Secretary Ashton Carter said Thursday that
the Block 30, one of four variants of the Global Hawk, “priced itself out of
the niche for taking pictures in the air.”

“We will continue to use the U-2 — that’s a disappointment
to us,” Carter said. “We had hoped to replace the U-2 with the Global Hawk, but
the Global Hawk became expensive.  And that’s the fate of things that
become too expensive in a resource-constrained environment.”

But Northrop brought up a statement from the
Pentagon about the Global Hawk Block 30 from last year, which said: “The
continuation of the program is essential to the national security.”

“There are no alternatives to the program which will provide
acceptable capability to meet the joint military requirement at less cost,” the statement read.