Despite the Pentagon's decision to nix the Air Force's Global Hawk unmanned aircraft from the arsenal in fiscal 2013, officials from prime contractor Northrop Grumman are staging an 11th-hour bid to get some of those planes back into the fleet.
Company officials are working a plan to convince the department to proceed with planned purchases of the Block 30M, the latest version of the aerial drone, industry insiders tell AOL Defense. The company's best bet to salvage the program would be to get congressional support to put the Block 30Ms back into the department's fiscal 2013 budget plan. The department plans to submit its fiscal 13 spending roadmap to lawmakers on Feb. 13.
The handful of Block 30Ms undergoing operational testing at Beale Air Force Base in Californian have performed well, insiders say.
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