WASHINGTON A draft of the Pentagon’s UAV road map for the next 25 years, due out late this month, says the Defense Dept, will spend about $10 billion on unmanned aerial vehicles by 2010 to quadruple today’s 90-aircraft inventory. The strategy is mirrored in the proposed Fiscal 2004-09 defense plan recently sent to Congress.

WASHINGTON Senior U.S. intelligence officials are grappling with the need for more global coverage, and are fretting that the current operational pace is straining their organizations. “The key question that we’re now thoughtfully talking about with the secretary of Defense and others is: In the world that you’re headed to, where information is going to have absolute primacy, do we really have the global coverage we need?

PARIS LONDON In a surprise move, BAE Systems has ceded its shareholding in Astrium and U.K. military satellite joint venture Paradigm for no capital gain, marking a total and rather ignominious pullout from the space sector. BAE agreed in principle last summer to sell its 25% stake in Astrium to majority owner EADS for 165 million euros ($177 million), provided that the U.K. finalize a contract for a new milsatcom system, Skynet 5, for which Paradigm was selected last year.

WASHINGTON The U.S. government needs to sketch a plan to develop and field a reusable launch vehicle (RLV) if it wants to have quick access to space, says the Pentagon’s space czar, Peter B. Teets. “We don’t have a good technology road map” for a reusable launcher, lamented Teets, who serves as Air Force undersecretary and National Reconnaissance Office director.

Genoa Germany and Italy will likely ditch six years of collaborative efforts in June, when they formally abandon an illstarred attempt to jointly procure up to 24 replacement maritime patrol aircraft. Berlin and Rome have allowed the Maritime Patrol Aircraft-Replacement (MPA-R) to limp along beyond January of this year—when a selection should finally have been made—but military sources here suggest the revised June deadline will bring only the coup de grace.

WASHINGTON The dispute between the U.S. and France and Germany over Iraq threatens to spill into other areas. In a sign that long-term relations may have been harmed, Rep. Duncan Hunter (R-Calif.), chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, said his panel would hold hearings over whether to realign the U.S. troop presence in Europe, which numbers 100,000 military personnel, with more than 71,000 in Germany.