For those getting excited at the potential loss of the US' ability to project power and gather intelligence, don't get too worked up. This is more of a prevention of concurrent developmental efforts, both the USAF and the USN don't need to fund parallel developmental programs. One service can work the baseline development and the other service can do incremental programs for service-specific requirements if they decide to pursue them at a later date. FWIW, I was quite impressed with the developments that the USN is planning on pursuing and I would have made the same decision. There are some very real limfacs on the current versions that the USN is planning on eliminating (sensor and airframe), and I'd like to see them be successful. The Block 40 versions the USAF wants are being pursued for the sensor suite.

For those comparing the Global Hawk and the U2; think of two people arguing over which is better, the F-16 or the A-10 without first laying down the framework of what the employment scenario/environment is. For all of its limitations (which in time will lessen), there are PLENTY of scenarios where a Global Hawk can do what a U2 can't.