A U.S. Air Force official provides details on the mysterious aircraft spotted in Afghanistan
Informally dubbed the “Beast of Kandahar,” the tailless flying wing apparently is an RQ-170 Sentinel designed to provide recon and surveillance for warfighters on the frontlines. Online photos had shown the drone at a General Atomics Aeronautical Systems’s hangar in Kandahar, Afghanistan.
The 30th Reconnaissance Squadron also operates the RQ-170 at Tonopah Test Range — a location perhaps better known as Area 52 — under the aegis of Creech Air Force Base in Nevada.
The unmanned aerial system (UAS) comes courtesy of Lockheed Martin’s Skunk Works, which has worked on the U-2 and Blackbird spy planes as well as a swimming spy plane for the U.S. Navy. Lockheed had previously displayed a different stealth drone design that bore resemblance to the Reaper drones currently flying missions in Afghanistan.
The Ares technology blog points out that the stealth features suggest a drone meant for tactical operations in support of combat troops, rather than sneaky intelligence-gathering.
Meanwhile, the UK has launched its own call for a laser-toting stealth UAS. We’ll let you know when those designs leak out.
[via Ares: Aviation Week]
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