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CNN Live At Daybreak

Unmanned Spy Planes Wave of the Future?

Aired July 05, 2001 - 07:40   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
COLLEEN MCEDWARDS, CNN ANCHOR: The Navy's EP-3 spy plane has come home. It arrived in the United States at Dobbins Air Reserve Base just about nine minutes ago. You're looking at a live shot right there of the Air Reserve Base in Marietta, Georgia.

That's a Russian cargo plane -- a huge plane, the Antonov-124, which inside it, in its belly, has the fuselage of the EP-3 plane. It's going to be unloaded. You won't see that here on CNN because the Pentagon has decided that it's secretive enough that it's not going to give people the chance to see it.

But it has arrived. When it is unloaded, it will be put inside a repair hanger. And the Pentagon has decided to try to put that EP-3 back together.

Now, people are asking if modern spy technology could actually someday replace manned aircraft.

CNN's national security correspondent David Ensor takes a look at that.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We are airborne, flight number one.

DAVID ENSOR, NATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): It has the wing span of a 727 and can loiter for 24 hours at a time at 65,000 feet, 6,000 miles from where it took off, collecting pictures and, in the future, electronic eavesdropping.

The Global Hawk may be an ideal spy plane. And best of all, there is no one on board.

MAJOR CHRIS JELLA, U.S. AIR FORCE PILOT: The aircraft is mostly autonomous. The two commands we have to send to get it airborne is -- one is a taxi command to get it out to the runway. And the second is a takeoff command.

ENSOR: With the EP-3 surveillance plane standoff with China still fresh in its memory, the 11-day ordeal of the plane's crew, the Bush administration decided to more than double, to over $300 million, funds for the Air Force to fly Global Hawks -- four a year starting in two years time.

Will they replace the EP-3s? Experts say there are pros and cons to remotely piloted vehicles, or RPVs.

JOHN HAMRE, FORMER DEPUTY DEFENSE SECRETARY: If, off the coast of China, a Chinese interceptor hit an RPV, that airplane would have been lost, you know, whereas a pilot was able to save it and save the crew.

Now, the downside is, of course, then we had a pilot that had to land in -- on the Chinese island. And we had a political crisis associated with that. So there are trade-offs.

ENSOR: But U.S. officials predict a big future for Global Hawks. Not only can they be outfitted to eavesdrop, they can also take pictures that America's spy satellites just cannot get.

JOHN PIKE: The advantages that you have with aircraft is that, unlike satellites, you can't predict when they're going to show up. And unlike satellites, they can remain in a given area for an extended period of time. And both of those things make it harder to hide from an airplane than to hide from a satellite.

ENSOR: And Global Hawk's creators at Northrop Grumman say they hope to build an even larger unmanned spy plane soon, one that could go still farther and collect intelligence still longer.

David Ensor, CNN, Washington.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

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