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Northrop’s other Los Angeles County operations include a large aircraft facility in Palmdale where it is building the new B-21 stealth bomber, the center fuselage for the F-35 fighter jet and drone aircraft.

Drone aircraft could augment the service’s ability to breach those defenses, and they are envisioned to provide support in a variety of future missions such as surveillance or jamming.

The Army cited “lessons learned and a sober assessment” of recent battlefields in Ukraine and elsewhere, where “agile” drone aircraft have been used to combat conventional forces from far away at low cost.

The Army will replace the canceled scout helicopters with new-generation drone aircraft and space-based systems, while phasing out older Shadow and Raven unmanned craft, the Army said in a statement.

He said an unmanned drone aircraft had been detected over Baltimore’s M&T Bank Stadium.