The Dragon Lady is now featured in the Air Warriors series of videos for The Smithsonian Channel. This 50-minute documentary covers the span of U-2 history from the early overflights of the Soviet Union, though the Gary Powers shootdown, the Cuba Missile Crisis, Vietnam, and onwards into the recent action over Afghanistan. It contains some … Continue reading AIR WARRIORS VIDEO DOCUMENTARY

The US Air Force Fiscal Year 2018 defense budget request has been published, and it confirms what I wrote here and elsewhere in March. "We plan to keep the U-2 well into the future - there is no retirement date," said Maj Gen Jim Martin, the Air Force deputy assistant secretary for budget. "We need … Continue reading IT’S OFFICIAL – NO RETIREMENT!

The Accident Investigation Board report into the crash of TU-2S 80-1068 on 20 September last year is available online, from the Scribd website. It shows, once again, why U-2 pilots must be more careful when flying this jet, than any other in the US military inventory. In this case, misfortune turned to tragedy when the … Continue reading U-2 TRAINER CRASH REPORT

As I noted in DRAGON LADY TODAY, the already-super performance of the radar imaging system on the U-2 could be significantly enhanced by upgrading it with an Active Electronically-Scanned Antenna (AESA). In fact, a test program to do just that is underway. But it has been slowed by budgetary restrictions. And because the U-2 is … Continue reading U-2 RADAR IMAGING COULD BE EVEN BETTER

I wrote an Op-Ed piece for the BREAKING DEFENSE website a couple of weeks ago. It attracted lots of comments. The debate continues... http://breakingdefense.com/2017/03/u-2-expert-says-global-hawk-just-cant-compare/

I heard some good news - unofficially - and wrote this story for Aviation International News, where I am the Defense Editor: http://www.ainonline.com/aviation-news/defense/2017-03-20/reprieve-likely-u-2-dragon-lady Nothing is confirmed until the full President's Budget for defense in Fiscal Year 2018 is published in a few weeks' time. That budget will also include (as usual), a forecast for spending … Continue reading REPRIEVE LIKELY FOR U-2 DRAGON LADY

This week’s tragic accident at Beale AFB should not be allowed to influence the debate, about whether the U-2 should remain in service. That debate continues, and will come to a head in the spring of next year, after the DoD’s Fiscal Year 2018 budget request is published. As things stand, the Dragon Lady fleet … Continue reading U-2 CRASH SHOULD NOT INFLUENCE RETIREMENT DEBATE

Next Friday 6th May, the 5th Reconnaissance Squadron will celebrate its 40th Anniversary, with a crew chief competition and an open house. The Blackcat squadron keeps three U-2s at Osan airbase in Korea, from where one of them takes off most days to monitor the reclusive but aggressive North Korean regime, and other situations in … Continue reading 40 YEARS OF THE BLACK CAT SQUADRON (v2)

I was pleased to visit the U-2 Branch within the C2ISR Division at Robins AFB, GA recently. It is from here that the Air Force sustains the Dragon Lady, thanks to some 70 people who write the contracts, manage the spare parts, and support new developments in the program. Most of them are government or … Continue reading MANAGING THE U-2 AT ROBINS AFB

The Global Hawk is still under-performing, and formal testing of the extensive improvements that have been ordered, won’t take place until Fiscal Year 2018. This information comes from the 2015 annual report by the Pentagon’s Director of Operational Test and Evaluation (DOT&E), Michael Gilmore. He notes that the multi-year upgrade and modernization program for the … Continue reading GLOBAL HAWK: $3.5 BILLION OF IMPROVEMENTS AWAITED