The U-2 high-altitude reconnaissance fighter developed by the United States was developed in the mid-50s, and it is an aircraft capable of conducting all-day reconnaissance. There are many kinds of this name, such as the manufacturer Lockheed fighter, which the United States calls "Mrs. Jiaolong", but because it will be shot down every time it appears, the pilot's wife may also become a "widow", so we generally call it "Black Widow".
I think it's fitting to describe this craft as "infamous."
This is a kind of "black widow", which, since it was created, has been active all over the world, such as the Soviet Union, such as our country, for example, in the Middle East. Don't look at the fact that he can fly freely in the skies of certain countries, but he is not invincible either, and with the right approach, we can shoot him down, no matter how high he is.
According to the data, only five U-2s of our army were shot down by our army, and the other plane crashed in China in 1969. In addition, in the sixties the USSR destroyed one U-2, Vietnam destroyed another U-2, and that's it, but we are the most numerous in the world.
The biggest reason why the U-2 can ignore the airspace of other countries is its ultra-high flight speed, under normal circumstances, it cruises in the air above 20,000 meters, and its limit can reach 27,000 meters, and the limit of the fighter at that time was only 15,000 meters, and it is not too realistic to use the fighter to intercept. Even nowadays, not every fighter can fly.
However, now the anti-aircraft missile technology is becoming more and more advanced, and it has become much easier to intercept the U-2, you must know that this is a fighter during the "Cold War", and it has no ** function at all, as long as it is found by the other side, it is basically a dead end. As a result, we have hardly heard of such flying machines for more than a decade.
Originally, he thought that the aerial scouts of this "Cold War" period should have been eliminated a long time ago, but he didn't expect that he would be able to hold on and release the latest version! Lockheed Martin recently announced that an updated U-2 Dragon Goddess U-2 has been put into service with the U.S. Air Force and will remain in service for the remainder of its service;
Lockheed said the new U-2 fighter jet has been updated in communications and navigation, equipped with a combat computer, adopted public flight standards, adopted a more advanced computer, and has a more advanced cockpit display.
The updated U-2 UAV can be connected to all the terminal networks of the US Air Force, so that it has the function of real-time reconnaissance intelligence, and is equipped with a set of intelligent equipment, which reduces the workload of pilots and improves the efficiency of reconnaissance.
In other words, all the data detected by the U-2 can be transmitted directly to the commander via the Internet, and it is no longer necessary to wait for the aircraft to land (until July of this year).
This update is likely to be the final update to the Black Widow fighter jet, and the US Air Force intends to retire all U-2 fighters within three years in order to save money on the production of the more advanced RQ-4 Global Hawk, as well as the Type 180 stealth drone to be launched in the future.
For the retirement of U-2 fighters, the US Air Force has actually had a long plan, as early as 2006, when Rumsfeld, then Secretary of State of Defense, announced the retirement plan of U-2 fighters;
However, the U.S. Congress did not approve of this hasty decision, believing that the U-2 fighter was still useful, so the retirement project was postponed. In 2009, the U.S. Air Force promised that these UAVs would remain in service until 2014 in order to better configure the RQ-4 UAV, but due to the failure of the RQ-4 Group 30 project in 2012, the U-2 UAV was postponed again to 2023;
According to the newly announced application for the retirement of the U-2 drone, its service period has been extended again until 2026, and Lockheed Martin has promised it to serve it until 2050 as long as it is still around.
After nearly two decades of continuous retirement, the U-2 is still "alive" in the US Air Force, and its fate is comparable to that of the A-10 Warthog.
However, compared with the A-10, an offensive weapon that can only be used for special occasions, the U-2 fighter has a considerable "living space" even in today's era when drones are rampant. (The U.S. Air Force still has 27 U-2 fighters, 3 CIA fighters, and 4 NASA fighters, all produced in the 80s).
Some people may say, how is that old unmanned drone still in use? Can drones or satellites be replaced? First, let's take a look at the latest U-2 satellites.
In February, the US Air Force dispatched several U-2 reconnaissance planes to search for "weather balloons" throughout the United States, which is currently the only aircraft that can reach that altitude.
Previously, the most common U-2 locations were in regions like Iraq and Afghanistan;
The U-2 is rarely used by the United States today, and only in places where it is poorly defended or not at all.
In this hotspot of Ukraine, these UAVs are not used in handy, but as a "Grim Reaper", what are its advantages?
Overall, it has three characteristics: cheap, flexible, and versatile!
Cheap: The U-2 fighter has been around for 60 years, and its flight cost is low, and its cost is only 4 3 times that of the RQ-1 Global Hawk unmanned aircraft;
In terms of cost alone, a U-2 is about 10 million US dollars at most, the cheapest MQ-9 "Reaper" is more than 50 million, and the RQ-4 is even higher, each of which is 2$500 million.
The superiority of the U-2 fighter is even more prominent when it comes to low-risk missions.
Maneuvering: The U-2 is piloted by a single pilot, which is more flexible than a satellite, and once commanded by the command, the U-2 can fly for 10 hours in a specific area, constantly gathering relevant information; Satellites, on the other hand, are timed and fixed-point, with poor elasticity.
Some people use "no illegal rules" to ridicule the disadvantages of satellite detection:
If you want it, it never shows up where you need it.
As a result, the U-2 has higher maneuverability and better combat capability than satellites.
General Purpose: The U-2 is larger, capable of carrying more equipment, and can sometimes relay high-altitude broadband communications.
The four spies in the United States are now only one U-2, which is the biggest reason why the U-2 has been preserved to this day! However, with the progress of science and technology, this advantage of the U-2 has gradually been eliminated, and when the American RQ-180 is officially put into service, its life will also come to an end.