Can We Devise An Autonomous U-2 ISR Aircraft for the Military - Let's Talk

Two things are certain when it comes to human conflict; One, It isn't going away anytime soon; and two, it is ever evolving. Let's talk shall we?

You see, not long ago, I watched an interesting short corporate Video promotional piece on YouTube from Lockheed Martin titled; "U-2: Unparalleled High Altitude Reconnaissance," and as it PR'ed its U-2 history, which has span over 4-decades, it claimed that with all its updated sensors it is the ISR aircraft of choice for decades to come. Is this true?

Interestingly enough, I had read an article posted on February 20, 2014 titled; "Where In Central Asia Would The U.S. Put A Drone Base?" in Eurasia (dot) net news by Joshua Kucera which made it sound like we needed to deal with rogue regimes and corrupt leaders so that we had an airbase for UAVs in Central Asia. I believe this to be a bogus question, almost irrelevant. Why? Well, have you seen Boeing's new Phantom Eye, or some of the DARPA projects for long-range, multiday reconnaissance aircraft lately? Still, Kucera's article is important as it speaks to the military planners, US congress, and bureaucracy in addressing this false question and illogical line of thought. The article stated;

"The U.S. is making plans to set up drone bases in Central Asia in the case that the government of Afghanistan doesn't allow U.S. troops to remain in that country past this year, the Los Angeles Times has reported. The military wants to maintain the ability to carry out attacks against militants in Afghanistan and Pakistan even if it has no military presence in those countries, and the next best options are the Central Asian states. The officials interviewed didn't specify which countries were being considered: "There are contingency plans for alternatives in the north," said one official quoted by the paper."

Now then, first of all, I do not find the LA Times to be a credible publication on such issues, and secondly, this just didn't make any sense at all. The Phantom Eye can solve this problem, but so two could a long-range unmanned Lockheed version of the famous U-2, as that might be another solution. Even a manned version with small diameter missiles could work, guaranteeing no anti-drone protests, as there would be a human behind the controls (literally in-the-loop) and not 1000s of miles away behind a video control telerobotic augmented reality screen.

With the technology we have today, well we don't need to be left in extortion level negotiations with questionable regimes. If we are to rid the world of multi-national and international terrorists, then let's use our best technologies and take care of business. Please consider this on a philosophical