Posted on 12/04/2009 3:46:26 PM PST by Reaganesque
The existence of a new secret plane photographed this week has been confirmed by the United States Air Force. The secret aircraft now has an official denomination: The RQ-170 Sentinel, a flying wing developed by Lockheed Martin's Skunk Works.
The RQ-170 is a stealthy unmanned aircraft designed to "provide reconnaissance and surveillance support to forward deployed combat forces." It's flown by the 30th Reconnaissance Squadron at Tonopah Test Range, Nevada, under the Air Combat Command's 432d Wing at Creech Air Force Base, Nevada.
The aircraft has a 65-foot wingspan, with a fat body and a blended wing design. It's unarmed, and—according to David A. Fulghum at Ares—its light color is unusual for high altitude UAV. [Ares]
My understanding is that it does have an integral bomb bay. It could be unarmed only in the strictest sense —i.e. this copy contained no internal weapons store at the time of photo.
I think the F-22 will be the last of the high-ticket manned systems, or those that carry humans will do so only as an option.
Dang, that has to be the coolest job in the world. Uh,,, I volunteer to fly them for FREEEEE if anyone is reading this, NO PAY REQUIRED!!!!!!!!!!!
The first photo of this platform was 18 months ago, but the unit was in-flight and the quality of the photo was not nearly as good.
One of the most impessive new systems I saw (just last week) was a military application of what that crazy French-swiss bat-man guy does with the single man backpack jet.
These units are for SF troopers, and they are stealthy, good for delivery of one trooper only, and the range is only something like 40 miles.
All these satellite dependent aircraft will be useless if/when a war brakes out with China. China made it perfectly clear their intentions of making space unusable with mass amounts of debris in low orbit if a war broke out.
The great irony is that what the USAF needs right now is not high tech, but inexpensive, durable, expendable, low tech aircraft. Not to do the sexy, stealthy, futuristic missions, but just endless, routine ordinary stuff.
If you look at the US Army, you will see what I mean. For every fighting soldier, there are 15 support soldiers. For every Stryker, there are probably 30 trucks. And the same thing applies to the USAF.
For every high tech fighter aircraft, you need a large number of transports, cheap and durable bombers like the B-52, UAVs that do close air support and reconnaissance for thousands of hours where it doesn’t matter if the enemy sees them, even blimps that just sit there while doing half a dozen missions at the same time.
I would say that the biggest design mission of the Skunkworks should be to design both a replacement for the B-52 that is more efficient yet still low maintenance; and to design a UAV that costs about as much per unit as an economy car.
Bush's fault.
Why is it called “Skunk Works?”
“unmanned aircraft”,
Kelly Johnson lifted the name from a moonshine factory in the L’il Abner comic strip: unconventional, out of sight, secret, clandestine, etc.
An armed vehicle (or vehicle which could carry weapons) flying over a country without permission is an act of war.
We don't need stealth to take out the Taliban -- they don't operate radar installations.
Every B-2 you see flying is one I helped to make. I machined the wing panels.
A stealth aircraft is not needed in Afghanistan. A stealth aircraft in Afghanistan which can overfly Iran next door WOULD be quite useful.
Very impressive! I’ve been a amazed by the B-2 since I was studying BL flow (how air breaks over an aircraft) in one of my college classes. Truly a remarkable bird.
“It’s unarmed”.
Not yet. I wonder what that will do with a couple of chain guns mounted fore and aft.
Does an artillery spotter carry a howitzer with him?
how many megapixels?
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