House tries to breathe life into Global Hawk Block 30 program

The House Armed Services Committee has designated $260 million in its mark-up of the National Defense Authorization Act for 2013 for the Air Force to continue operating its Block 30 Global Hawk unmanned aerial vehicles, reports Sydney J. Freedberg Jr. at AOL Defense.

The committee instructed the Air Force to continue operating the Block 30 Global Hawks rather than warehousing them as the military service said it intended to do.

The administration's fiscal 2013 budget request canceled the Block 30 program and did not include funds to operate and maintain the 18 drones already in the U.S. air arsenal. The move was made because the administration deemed the Block 30 Global Hawks to be less effective and more expensive to fly than the U-2 manned surveillance aircraft.