New UAV?

[wuzafuzz]

This is interesting.  Not so secret any more.  For all I know it's actually well known and I'm just not up to date on UAV's.

http://gizmodo.com/5416161/us-secret-plane-uncovered

[Hawk200]

That's a new one to me.

[rjfoxx]

The aircraft looks VERY similar to the Navy's experimental UAV, the XB-47.  The XB-47 is a flying wing very similar to the B-2 bomber.  They are both made by Northrup-Grummen.

[SarDragon]

What is your source for that info? The Navy doesn't fly 'B' designated aircraft, and the 'B-47' designator has already been used.

[Pumbaa]

Either an X-45C by Boeing or X-47B by NG.


Skunkworks also has one too.

A lot of these are referenced as UCAVs.  Unmanned COMBAT aerial vehicles.

[SarDragon]

OK, now it makes sense.

[Hawk200]

Either an X-45C by Boeing or X-47B by NG.


Skunkworks also has one too.

A lot of these are referenced as UCAVs.  Unmanned COMBAT aerial vehicles.

Looks like a mini B-2. Judging from the background that one's probably being tested In Palmdale, CA, and possibly at Edwards.

[PHall]

Either an X-45C by Boeing or X-47B by NG.


Skunkworks also has one too.

A lot of these are referenced as UCAVs.  Unmanned COMBAT aerial vehicles.

Looks like a mini B-2. Judging from the background that one's probably being tested In Palmdale, CA, and possibly at Edwards.

It flies out of Edwards. It would fly out of Palmdale if the Lockheed "Skunkworks" was involved with the project.

[MikeD]

It doesn't look like either the X-45 or X-47.  Most likely it's something similar from Skunk Works.  Epic OPSEC Fail if it's supposed to be secret. 

[lordmonar]

It is an RQ-170

http://www.aviationweek.com/aw/generic/story.jsp?id=news/BEAST120409.xml&headline=USAF%20Confirms%20Stealthy%20UAV%20Operations&channel=defense

[ol'fido]

It doesn't look like either the X-45 or X-47.  Most likely it's something similar from Skunk Works.  Epic OPSEC Fail if it's supposed to be secret.

Um...says Boeing PHANTOM WORKSon the side/ Emphasis mine.

[SarDragon]

Also note the X-45A on the right wing that I missed the first time i looked.

[Smithsonia]

X-45A? X-47? However neither is a real UCAV. OMG... there's a little boy in there from Ft. Collins Colorado!!! HELP!!!

[Al Sayre]

I think that this thing is actually a model that the engineers are playing with.  I remember seeing a complete video of it about 6 months ago.  It looks real in the video until the final shot where it taxis up to the operator and ends up being about a 6 foot wingspan model...

[Pumbaa]

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]

[Airrace]

I was flying near Edwards and seen it in the air earlier in the year. Quite a sight to see with your eyes. It had a chase plane flying close to it.

[Майор Хаткевич]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20091208/pl_afp/usaviationmilitarydrones_20091208212912

WASHINGTON (AFP) – The US Air Force on Tuesday confirmed for the first time that it is flying a stealth unmanned aircraft known as the "Beast of Kandahar," a drone spotted in photos and shrouded in secrecy.

The RQ-170 Sentinel is being developed by Lockheed Martin and is designed "to provide reconnaissance and surveillance support to forward deployed combat forces," the air force said in a brief statement.

The "RQ" prefix for the aircraft indicates an unarmed drone, unlike the "MQ" designation used for Predator and Reaper aircraft equipped with missiles and precision-guided bombs.

Aviation experts dubbed the drone the "Beast of Kandahar" after photographs emerged earlier this year showing the mysterious aircraft in southern Afghanistan in 2007.

The image suggested a drone with a radar-evading stealth-like design, resembling a smaller version of a B-2 bomber.

A blog in the French newspaper Liberation published another photo this week, feeding speculation among aviation watchers about the classified drone.

The air force said the aircraft came out of Lockheed Martin's "Skunk Works," also known as Advanced Development Programs, in California -- the home of sophisticated and often secret defense projects including the U-2 spy plane, the F-22 fighter jet and the F-117 Nighthawk.

The photo of the drone in Afghanistan has raised questions about why the United States would be operating a stealth unmanned aircraft in a country where insurgents have no radar systems, prompting speculation Washington was using the drones for possible spying missions in neighboring Iran or Pakistan.

The Sentinel was believed to have a flying wing design with no tail and with sensors built into the top side of each wing, according to published photos.

The RQ-170 is in line with Defense Secretary Robert Gates' request for more intelligence and surveillance resources and with the Air Force chief of staff's plans to expand the fleet of unmanned aircraft, the air force said.

The new drone is flown by the 30th Reconnaissance Squadron out of Tonopah Test Range in Nevada, which is under Air Combat Command's 432nd Wing at Creech Air Base, also in Nevada.

The United States has carried out an extensive bombing campaign against Al-Qaeda figures in Pakistan using the Predator and larger Reaper drones.

Robots or "unmanned systems" in the air and on the ground are now deployed by the thousands in Iraq and Afghanistan, spying from the sky for hours on end, searching for booby-traps and firing lethal missiles without putting US soldiers at risk.

[MikeD]

It doesn't look like either the X-45 or X-47.  Most likely it's something similar from Skunk Works.  Epic OPSEC Fail if it's supposed to be secret.

Um...says Boeing PHANTOM WORKSon the side/ Emphasis mine.

The original link in this thread doesn't.  Someone posted a pic of the X-45 later on in the thread (which has blue trim).

[FARRIER]

http://www.auvsi.org/AUVSI/AUVSI/Home/

Association for Unmanned Vehicle Systems International

[Senior]

 :1)Variation on the theme of the scaled down flying wing.  Interesting, how someone got that close to take the picture. The landing gear looks really stout for a surviellance platform.  I am glad we have one more thing to take the fight to the enemy. :clap: