The US Air Force is still committed to divestment of the Dragon Lady, despite concerns expressed by the Combatant Commanders (COCOMS) and the Congress, which forced a pause in retirement actions during the current fiscal year.

In written testimony to the Senate Armed Services Committee (SASC) this month, the USAF leadership said: “The ability to win high-end conflicts requires transitioning to connected, survivable platform investment and accepting short-term risks by divesting legacy ISR assets. The USAF plans to transition all U-2 capabilities to other reconnaissance aircraft post-divestment.”

Of course, this begs the question of what those “other reconnaissance aircraft” might be. I have discussed the elusive ‘White Bat’ UAV for a Penetrating ISR (P-ISR) mission on this website multiple times, such as here. There may also be a ‘fast-mover’ airborne vehicle with an ISR mission designed by The Skunk Works.

I have also discussed here, the other system that is planned to replace the U-2, namely a new satellite capability. The development of a spaceborne Ground Moving Target Indicator (GMTI) constellation of satellites is supposed to provide ‘the unblinking eye’ that has hitherto been provided by airborne platforms such as the U-2, Global Hawk and JSTARS.

I have suggested that this system is still some way from providing an operational capability, not only technically but in terms of ‘who does what’. That issue came up in the recent SASC hearing, when newly-appointed Secretary of the Air Force Dr Troy Meink admitted that although a basic agreement between the National Reconnaissance Office (NRO), the National Geospatial Intelligence Agency (NGA) and the US Space Force (USSF) had been reached, “the devil is in the details…we’re starting to do experimentation with that now, and fielding tools to allow that to happen. There’s obviously still a lot of work to do”.  

Meanwhile, the question of what might replace the U-2 at Beale has been aired. The P-ISR, or at least its command and control, is part of that. In addition, the USAF recently announced that Beale would host an “aircraft readiness unit” for the Collaborative Combat Aircraft (CCA). These are autonomous UAVs that are designed to operate alongside manned combat aircraft in such roles as electronic warfare and ISR.

Prototypes of the first two designs, the YFQ-42A from General Atomics and the Anduril YFQ-44A, have already flown. But Gen Allvin told the SASC that an “experimental operations unit” for the CCAs was being established at Creech AFB, NV that would operate “for years”. So the arrival of a CCA mission at Beale seems some considerable time away.