The Global Hawk unmanned aerial vehicle has surpassed the 10,000 hour flying mark, clocking 10,500 hours as of late July—some 63 percent of them on combat missions. Making this accomplishment more outstanding is the fact that, until earlier this year when the first production models arrived in Southwest Asia, the Air Force had been flying development models in Afghanistan and Iraq.
The Air Force’s Hypersonic Attack Cruise Missile is behind schedule and may significantly overrun its expected cost, which could partially explain why the service is reviving the hypersonic AGM-183 Air-Launched Rapid-Response Weapon.