Air Force Secretary Michael Donley said Friday the service will start closing down the U-2 depot support capability soon, and that the venerable surveillance aircraft may depart the inventory circa 2015. USAF officials “adjusted” that date to account for the fact that the service has “truncated” its buy of RQ-4 Global Hawk Block 40 aircraft from 22 to 11 aircraft, he told reporters at AFA’s Air Warfare Symposium in Orlando, Fla.
The Air Force overall reduced its size by 120 aircraft in fiscal year 2021, but kept about the same number of fighter, bomber and attack aircraft, according to data supplied by the service. The F-35 fleet saw the biggest increase while the B-1B bomber fleet saw the largest decline.