in 2005 and was first spotted in
Afghanistan in 2007. It has been more
than a decade since then, a long time
for the technology to develop further.
It’s easy to imagine — and in keeping
with the Third Offset Strategy — that the
USAF could have developed an armed
version that can work in tandem with
surveillance RQ-170s to search, pick and
strike at targets with minimal risk of
being detected. Alternatively, they could
penetrate deep into enemy airspace and
feed data back to manned strike aircraft
such as F-35s and the forthcoming B-
Raider stealth bomber.The truth is out there
The USAF is certainly up to something.
In 2014, civilian photographers snapped
away at two separate, unknown aircraft,
flying at high altitudes over Texas
and Kansas. The first was a formation
of three jets, which were shapedlike a boomerang; then the Kansas
incident included an aircraft shaped
like a triangle. One, or possibly both,
could have been B-21 prototypes or
unknown drones. A possible candidate
for the Kansas sighting is the Northrop
Grumman RQ-180, a deep-penetrating
surveillance drone which the USAF has
confirmed exists. But the service has not
disclosed any information about the
two flying objects. Many suggested they
were B-2 Spirits, but notably the USAF
said they were not.
In any case, it is a given that both
Russia and China are taking these
cryptic developments seriously, and
that the USAF is busily preparing for
the possibility of a major war behind
the scenes. Of course, it’s also possible
that some of these glimpses at strange
drones and new hangars are themselves
part of the strategy — a deliberate
signal to Russia and China.Left: A recent
conference
briefing led many
to speculate that
Lockheed Martin’s
hypersonic SR-
may already have
flown.
Lockheed Martin
Below: The F-
was retired from
USAF service a
decade ago, yet a
few remain flying
on the Nevada
Test and Training
Range, likely for
test duties as
stealthy targets.
Jamie Hunter
Below right top to
bottom: A glimpse
of the future — a
recent ‘Skunk
Works’ video gave
a tantalizing look
at a potential
sixth-generation
fighter concept.
Lockheed Martin
Unmanned
strike drones
may be far more
advanced than
we appreciate,
probably as
top-secret
black programs.
Lockheed Martinanother $6 billion into the Pentagon’s
‘black’ budget alone, which amounted
to nearly $60 billion annually in 2015
across the services. The amount is
roughly equivalent to the entire annual
British defense budget!
The Trump administration, for its part,
has retired the Obama-era terminology
of a Third Offset, but has insisted even
more that the US military must prepare
for a major, state-on-state war, and has
proposed a corresponding 10 per cent
increase in the defense budget. For the
USAF, that could embolden research
and development into long-range strike
and surveillance aircraft — including
drones — with advanced networking
capabilities.
Stealthy, unmanned, attack/
reconnaissance aircraft boasting
stealth features and long range are
an enormous asset if the foe is China,
where pilots operating manned aircraft
would face enormous risks — and
could come under missile attack on the
ground at bases in Okinawa and Guam.
If the Pentagon is working on a deep-
strike, unmanned counter-force, it would
have all the more incentive to keep it
tightly held.
Now recall Lockheed’s unarmed
RQ-170, which the USAF activatedhttp://www.combataircraft.net // April 2018 17
14-17 The Briefing C.indd 17 16/02/2018 10: