USAF Stealth UAV No Longer a UFO
There have been persistent ground reports from Afghanistan dating back to 2007 regarding what the military calls an Unmanned Aerial System (more popularly, "UAV") that did not match the profile of any publicly announced UAS platform.
A photo of the vehicle some in the press have called "Kandahar's Loch Ness monster, " the "Beast of Kandahar", or simply resembling a Nazi stealth plane, was published by Jean-Dominique Merchet on his blog Secret Defense (in Google translation). The sighting has sparked lively speculation as to which previously known U.S. aerospace project is behind the vehicle.
Recently, the USAF confirmed that the RQ-170 Sentinel, developed by Lockheed Martin's Advanced Development Programs (Skunk Works) division, had been added to the force. The Air Force indicated that the platform is still being tested, according to FlightGlobal.com. It's unclear whether the photo produced by Mercet (and reproduced here) is in fact an RQ-170, but the announced purpose, "reconnaissance and surveillance support to forward-deployed combat purposes" lends credence to the general profile of the aircraft shown in the photo.
The sighting has added to concerns that the UAS is being used beyond Afghanistan. The need for a stealth craft against Afghanistan's low-tech, radar-less Taliban and Al Queda adversaries is disputed. Some believe the aircraft may be used over Pakistan, where public opinion is quite hostile to U.S. UAS surveillance — or perhaps even Iran. Regardless, these builders of these machines continue to seek out the dull, dirty and dangerous work they were designed to perform.
Photo courtesy of Secret Defense
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