TAKING A LOOK BEHIND THE HEADLINES
TAKING A LOOK BEHIND THE HEADLINES
BYBY ROBERT BECKHUSEN ROBERT BECKHUSEN
‘SKUNK WORKS’
— WHAT’S OUT THERE NOW...?
T
HE US MILITARY, has within
the past several years,
revealed the existence of
previously secret surveillance
drones such as the RQ-170 and
the RQ-180, a new manned
stealth bomber project and concepts
from the defense industry for spy and
strike aircraft capable of traveling at
hypersonic speeds, including Lockheed
Martin’s SR-72 and Boeing’s competing
Valkyrie II concepts, the latter in
January 2018.
Cue a near-truism. When there are
so many far- ung blueprints on the
drawing board, and as so many real-life
aircraft appear into the public view, the
US Air Force, correspondingly, is likely at
the same time very busy with so-called
‘black’ projects. These are the advanced,
covert aircraft programs that are almost
entirely hidden from the public eye,
and intended to help the US military
leap ahead of its adversaries over the
coming decades.
Many of them never make it to the
operational stage. It is exceedingly likely
that the USAF is currently ying weird
and shadowy aircraft that will never see
service, let alone combat — but will
inform other aircraft that do.
While they might be highly secretive,
long-term strategies laid out in publicand tidbits of information nestled
in contracts worth billions of dollars
supporting mysterious aerospace
projects give us a few clues. For instance,
there is reason to believe that the ying
branch’s drone projects are far more
extensive than it has disclosed. They
may include advanced strike drones
necessary to wage a future con ict with
a major adversary.
Case in point: in 2017, it was reported
that the USAF had awarded $3.6 billion
to URS Federal Services of Maryland
to support ‘remotely piloted aircraft
services’ through 2034 at Creech AFB,
Nevada, and at the ultra-sensitive
Nevada Test and Training Range (NTTR)
and Tonopah Test Range Air eld —
sites closely associated with black
project trials for decades. The USAF
later removed references to remotely
piloted aircraft from the contract
announcement, stating that the sum
was for more anodyne-sounding ‘range
support services’.
Regardless, it is an enormous sum for
such a vaguely worded purpose. When
distributed annually, it is comparable
to the funds needed to operate several
USAF ghter wings. Moreover, this is at
a time when the USAF is short on ghter
wings and cites budget woes as being
part of the reason why.Long-term strategies laid out in
public and tidbits of information
nestled in contracts worth billions
of dollars supporting mysterious
aerospace projects give us a few clues
about highly secretive programs.
14 April 2018 //^ http://www.combataircraft.net
14-17 The Briefing C.indd 14 16/02/2018 10: