Record Breaking Drone too pricey for CENTCOM



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Message posted by Heard Not seen (Member since 09/06/2012) on July 25, 2024 at 1:41:46 PST:

Not entirely Groom but thought i'd share to the measured & highly astute folks here! :D

From The High Side's Jack Murphy on Substack.

U.S. Central Command is preparing to send a pair of record-breaking drones back to the United States less than six months into their deployment because it can’t afford less than $2 million per month to keep them in the Middle East, according to a representative of their manufacturer, DZYNE Technologies Incorporated.

“I don’t want to see another program with good promise ruined by people who want to strap weapons on an [Intelligence, Surveillance, Reconnaissance] platform,” a former military official familiar with military drone programs told the High Side, adding that the ULTRA occupies “the perfect middle ground” between the RQ-4 Global Hawk, an unmanned system, and the venerable U-2 Dragon Lady manned spy plane. The longest known RQ-4 combat sortie lasted 32.5 hours, while the U-2’s Cold War missions were limited to 8 hours, but this century the plane has flown missions lasting up to 12 hours, according to Smithsonian Magazine.

A second DZYNE official told The High Side that the Pentagon wants to keep the ULTRA in theater but that the budget for doing so has dried up so the Air Force is preparing to pack the drones up and ship them back to the United States. “CENTCOM is going to return these birds next month,” the first DZYNE official said. “They claim they don’t have the $1.9 million a month that would be required to operate them and keep them going.”

Developed at Dugway etc

https://thehighside.substack.com/p/record-breaking-drone-is-ultra-cheap

Some nice footage & photos here https://dzyne.com/


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