The Predator drones that for a decade have been the weapons of choice of the U.S. military soon will be démodé. As the Pentagon prepares an ambitious “air-sea battle” plan to face well-armed adversaries in Asia or the Middle East, it is shopping for more sophisticated spy aircraft that can survive in hostile airspace and stay aloft for days without being detected.
“We need to persist over the battle space and be survivable,” said Mark Gunzinger, a military analyst at the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments/.../
The Air Force operates more than 200 Predator and Reaper unmanned aircraft, but those fly at lower altitudes and have less endurance than Global Hawk or BAMS.
“The UAV force we have today isn’t what we need for air-sea battle or for war in the Gulf,” said Gunzinger. “I imagine people at the Pentagon are worried about where they are going to park all the Predators and Reapers that they have coming back from the wars.”