The united states Air Force has secretly developed a brand new stealth drone for long-range reconnaissance missions that may be operational by 2015, consistent with a report Friday in an industry magazine.
The unmanned drone, dubbed RQ-180, is currently inside the testing phase on the top secret Groom Lake air base in Nevada — the infamous “Area 51″ where the Air Force tested the U2 spy planes within the late 1950s, Aviation Week said.
The Air Force refused to comment when contacted by AFP.
The new aircraft was reportedly built by Northrop Grumann, the corporate behind the worldwide Hawk and the X-47B drones, which landed on air craft carriers for the 1st time this summer.
The US company can have obtained in 2008 a secret contract at the order of $2 billion to develop the most recent drone, in accordance with Aviation Week.
An artistic rendering of the RQ-180 at the cover of the magazine shows a craft with striking resemblance to the X-47B, specifically in loss of rear stabilizer and its so-called “batwing” shape.
It was developed for intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) missions, but “could even be in a position to electronic attack missions,” the magazine said.
“It is comparable in size and endurance to the worldwide Hawk,” which might fly for twenty-four hours as much as 1,200 nautical miles (2,000 kilometers) from its base.
A first generation of unmanned aircraft, the non-stealthy Reapers and Global Hawks, were utilized in Afghanistan and Iraq, but they were deemed too vulnerable in enemy territory equipped with powerful anti-aircraft defenses.
Now the Air Force is slowly turning to stealth drones, better at passing safely over unfriendly territory.
In December 2011, a spy drone that had until then been secret, the RQ-170 Sentinel, crashed 155 miles (250 kilometers) inside Iranian air space.
The unmanned craft, which had taken off from Afghanistan, was on a mission to watch Iran’s nuclear sites for the CIA, in line with US press reports.
According to Aviation Week, the hot RQ-180 “eclipses the smaller, less stealthy and shorter-range RQ-170 Sentinel.”
Related Topic Tags