Combat aircraft

Curiously enough, the announcement

came after the once completely black

RQ-170 Sentinel, Lockheed’s tailless

surveillance drone employed by the

USAF and CIA, reportedly moved out

of Tonopah to the less secretive bases

at Creech and Vandenberg in southern

California. Was the Sentinel making

room for a new black project? Perhaps

several? During the same timeframe,

the USAF has busily constructed new

hangars at Creech, its secret test air eld

at Groom Lake and an undisclosed

location for US Special Operations

Command. The remoteness of the

USAF’s desert bases, far from prying

eyes, makes them ideal for testing ultra-

sensitive aerospace projects.

New drone force?

A diverse, black project drone force

would correspond with what the

Pentagon termed the Third O set

Strategy, which began under the

Obama administration and was aimed

at countering new battle eld networks

and long-range weapons developed by

China and Russia. One of the stranger

results of that strategy, developed out

of the Pentagon’s high-tech Strategic

Capabilities O ce, was a networked

swarm of buzzing, kitten-sized Perdix

drones launched by the dozens from

pods attached to the F/A-18E/F Super

Hornet. The strategy also shifted

Above: An

RQ-170 Sentinel

in the pattern

at Vandenberg

Air Force Base.

Matthew C.

Hartman

Right: Clarence

‘Kelly’ Johnson

founded the

famous ‘Skunk

Works’, which

has created such

advanced aircraft

as the U-2, the

SR-71 and

the F-117.

Lockheed Martin

http://www.combataircraft.net // April 2018 15

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