{"id":190216,"date":"2009-12-20T16:41:00","date_gmt":"2009-12-20T21:41:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/2009\/12\/20\/rq-170-sentinel-revealed\/"},"modified":"2009-12-20T16:41:00","modified_gmt":"2009-12-20T21:41:00","slug":"rq-170-sentinel-revealed","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/2009\/12\/20\/rq-170-sentinel-revealed\/","title":{"rendered":"RQ-170 Sentinel Revealed"},"content":{"rendered":"
Click for full size<\/p>\n
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RQ<\/span>-170<\/p>\n

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What are the fairings on top are for, maybe antennae?
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So, I was wrong, when I suggested that there was no reason for the USAF to be flying a stealthy UAV<\/span> in Afghanistan and that someone was Photoshopping<\/span> a Burt Rutan<\/span> project<\/a>.<\/p>\n

I was wrong.<\/p>\n

The configuration is interesting, because while it is clearly low observable<\/span>, the location of the exhaust is fairly conventional, rather than discharging on top of the wing, which implies that, despite it clearly being a LO design, it’s not a “LO is the be all and end all of the design” vehicle like the F-117 and B-2 are.<\/p>\n

The USAF has now admitted to fielding the RQ<\/span>-170 Sentinel<\/span> UAV<\/span> in Afghanistan<\/span><\/a> as well as the fact that it was developed at Lockheed Martin’s Skunkworks<\/span><\/a>.<\/p>\n

It appears to have been developed in response to the diplomatic brouhaha<\/span> that resulted from the interception and forced landing of an EP<\/span>-3<\/a> at the beginning of the Bush Administration.<\/p>\n

It should be noted that the RQ<\/span> designation means that<\/span> it is unarmed<\/a>, (paid subscription required<\/span>) and the linked article also gives a reason for the USAF to deploy a radar evading UAV<\/span> to Afghanistan:<\/p>\n

\u201cDon\u2019t get enamored with current conditions,\u201d [Air Force deputy chief of staff for ISR<\/span>, Lt. Gen. Dave] <\/span>Deptula<\/span> cautions. \u201cWe don\u2019t know what the future will bring.\u201d While operations in Afghanistan will be \u201cmore complex than ever,\u201d the future is \u201cnot only going to be about irregular warfare.\u201d<\/p>\n

Beyond 2011, the Air Force\u2019s first priority and the destination of the next dollar to be spent \u201cif I were king for a day,\u201d Deptula<\/span> says, \u201cwould be for long-range [reconnaissance and] precision strike. That\u2019s the number-one need.
The \u201cblack\u201d Sentinel was seen in 2007 at Kandahar, Afghanistan. Two photographs surfaced this year via the Secret Defense Blog.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe cannot move into a future without a platform that allows [us] to project power long distances and to meet advanced threats in a fashion that gives us an advantage that no other nation has,\u201d he notes. \u201cWe can\u2019t walk away from that capability.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

It’s all about the Benjamins<\/span>. The USAF is deploying this to Afghanistan because they think that it will help them in their budget fights against other services.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Click for full size RQ-170 What are the fairings on top are for, maybe antennae? So, I was wrong, when I suggested that there was no reason for the USAF to be flying a stealthy UAV in Afghanistan and that someone was Photoshopping a Burt Rutan project. I was wrong. The configuration is interesting, because …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1007,1038,1006,1025,1152],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-190216","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-aviation","category-budget","category-military","category-technology","category-uav"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/190216"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=190216"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/190216\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=190216"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=190216"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=190216"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}