Hawking Global Hawk

Global Hawk prime contractor Northrop Grumman has released more information on the number of hours being flown by the Air Force's fleet of RQ-4s as Congress considers the service's plan to keep the aircraft in while retiring the U-2 spy plane.

The service's main argument for keeping Global Hawks instead of U-2s involves a significant reduction in the average cost-per-flight-hour (CPFH) for the unmanned platform, driven mostly by increases in the number of hours flown across the entire fleet.

According to a May 28 company statement, Northrop's total fleet of high-altitude long-endurance systems (HALE) -- including the Global Hawk and its Navy and NASA derivatives -- logged a record 665 hours during the week ending Feb. 23, flying operational and exercise missions. That's the equivalent of four aircraft flying around the clock for an entire week.

The company said in 2013 the Global Hawk fleet flew an average of 434 hours per week.

The statement said the company's HALE family of unmanned aircraft has accumulated more than 110,000 flight hours since its introduction, with more than 87 percent of those hours logged by Air Force Global Hawks.

InsideDefense.com reported in March that the average CPFH of the Air Force's RQ-4 fleet was $24,000 in the 2013 reporting period compared to $32,000 a year earlier -- when the service wanted to divest the Global Hawk fleet in favor of keeping the significantly older U-2s.

The Air Force's Global Hawk fleet is due to increase its average number of flight hours through 2017 as new aircraft are delivered and the Air Force completes the establishment of a Global Hawk forward operating base in Japan. The service is also developing a weather radar for the platform to increase its availability rate.

Northrop is slated to deliver the last Global Hawk to the Air Force in late FY-17.

The U-2 has significant support among lawmakers in the House and Senate, and it appears unlikely that Congress will authorize the Air Force to divest the fleet as intended.

The Air Force has 32 Global Hawks in its inventory as of May 28, according to Northrop spokeswoman Elizabeth Malloy.