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August 19, 2000

The Air Force expects to lose most of its U-2s to old age by 2008, and is seriously considering the idea of replacing them with Global Hawk drones. The working theory is to accelerate the Block-10 version (which has several improvements) into production by two years, having it ready in 2006. Production of Global Hawks would be ramped up in 2004 from two per year to six per year, meaning 12 of the Dash-10s and as many as twenty of the basic aircraft would be flying in 2008. --Stephen V Cole