Global Hawk drone flies into budget battle between Pentagon, Congress

The Air Force planned to stop buying and flying the Global Hawk drone to save about $2.5 billion over five years. Lawmakers backed by the defense lobby have scuttled that and other cost-cutting efforts.When the Air Force looked for ways to save money last year to deal with declining budgets, officials decided to halt work on a high-flying, long-endurance spy drone built in Palmdale by defense giant Northrop Grumman Corp.