AIR FORCE: CAN'T LIVE WITH OR WITHOUT U-2 CONGRESS DENIES PENTAGON'S REQUEST TO RETIRE RECONNAISSANCE PLANES.

Byline: JIM SKEEN Staff Writer

PALMDALE -- Congress rejected a Pentagon bid to begin retiring U-2 reconnaissance planes in 2007, but agreed to allow the retirement of up to 10 F-117 stealth fighters.

In a compromise reconciling differences between Senate and House of Representatives versions of a defense authorization bill, Congress adopted language that blocks the retirement of any U-2s in 2007 and says after that, the Air Force must show American intelligence gathering won't be harmed before it can retire any.

Congress agreed to an Air Force request to retire 10 of its 52 F-117s, but included language that the 10 aircraft be kept in a condition that would allow them to be recalled.

The compromise bill was approved by the Senate and House on Friday.

The U-2 and the F-117 were built by Lockheed Martin, which continues to operate modification and support services for the airplanes in Palmdale.

The first operational combat aircraft made to be essentially invisible to radar, the Air Force's F-117 stealth fighters were used in both the first Persian Gulf War of the early 1990s and in the latest war in Iraq, as well as in Panama and the Balkans. The Pentagon says missiles and other aircraft -- including the B-2 bomber and the new F-22 -- can now provide stealthy, precision strike capability.

Retirement of the 10 F-117 will be gradual. The Pentagon announced last month it was awarding Lockheed Martin a $494 million contract to continue its support work of the F-117 through 2012.

``It'll have minimal impact,'' company spokeswoman Dianne Knippel said of the initial retirements. ``The way the customer schedules the modifications, we only have one or two aircraft in at a time.''

The Pentagon wanted to start retiring the U-2s in fiscal year 2007 and have them all gone in fiscal year 2011, even though the aircraft is capable of flying decades more. In their 2007 budget request, Pentagon officials said they were seeking to speed up the retirement of the aircraft in a move to save about $2 billion.

The unmanned Global Hawk reconnaissance aircraft, assembled in Palmdale by Northrop Grumman workers, can take over the U-2's role of providing reconnaissance images to battlefield commanders, according to a Pentagon budget document.

Critics of the proposal point out that the U-2 can carry more intelligence and reconnaissance equipment than the Global Hawk and, in some cases, has more powerful sensors.

About 28 U-2s and five trainers are believed to remain in military service. All were built during the 1980s, though the design dates to the 1950s and U-2 aircraft were responsible for discovering Soviet nuclear missiles in Cuba in the 1962 Cuban missile crisis.

The Global Hawk has provided more than 15,000 images of targets in the Middle East in the War on Terror over the past year, according to the Pentagon budget document. A larger version now in production is able to carry additional gear for listening to enemy radio transmissions and identifying radar sites, as the U-2 can do.

james.skeen@dailynews

[phone]

CAPTION(S):

photo

Photo:

(color) A Lockheed Martin U-2 aircraft flies over the Tehachapi Mountains. Congress rejected a Pentagon bid to begin retiring U-2 reconnaissance planes in 2007.