The U.S. Air Force's "target on the wall" date for retiring the fabled U-2 spy plane has been a moving target ever since the service surprised Congress and the intelligence community in 2006 with a proposal to retire the fleet within five years. The latest retirement date is 2013, which is when the Air Force anticipates flying the first nine versions of a Global Hawk unmanned aircraft tailored specifically to cover the U-2's spying missions. Observers would not be surprised if the Air Force decided to shift the U-2 retirement date again because of the complicated manufacturing and testing process associated with rolling out the Global Hawks in a succession of versions or blocks. Challenges also have come from the battlefield. The Air Force has decided to pull cameras off two Global Hawks in the pipeline and install communications antennas on them to satisfy an urgent request from Central Command. The planes would circle high over a war zone -- probably in Afghanistan -- to serve as communications relays. In June, the Air Force awarded a dollar276 million contract to Northrop Grumman, the Global Hawk prime contractor, to adapt the company's Battlefield Airborne Communications Node for the Global Hawk. These nodes are currently flown on two Bombardier business jets.
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