16 classified stealth planes in US inventory

I highly doubt we only have 16 stealth aircraft with all the seceracy at area 51/nevada desert. if we had only 16 planes, the president would be able to know about the # goin on there rite?

damn, wish i woulda see the land warrior one...ive seen some awhile back but these were all new episodes...

and all these ppl saying 'i doubt we have just 16 planes in the inventory' i personally dont recall anyone saying JUST 16 planes... what i recall is someone saying that there are currently 16 black projects trying to be cleared for declassification....

Yah, tahts what they said, declassification, wonder whats more advanced them those

You can also see that the US is moving toward relying on UAV's more and more. out of the 16 planes being considered to be declassified only 4 are manned, leaving 12 drones.

Also I think you can see some of the new planes abilities from Operation Enduring Freedom. a couple of hours after the pentagon was hit on 9/11 there were reports and video of laser designators and bombs going off in Kabul afghanistan, and later the press never mentoined it or debunked it. sounds like the a-17 to me

Originally posted by WestPoint23
also at the end of the show they said that the perfect shape for a stealth plane was a saucer or a disk and they showed a computer animated saucer with the usaf symbol.

Maybe Bob Lazar was telling the truth lol.

i hope bob lazer was telling the truth if he was than the last president of lockheed martin on the history channel show was quoted saying "we have stuff in the nevada desert 50 beyond what you can imagine"

Originally posted by eXtenz
damn, wish i woulda see the land warrior one...ive seen some awhile back but these were all new episodes...

Yeah the land show was pretty sweet ,The future warrior was really cool they talked about using nano technology to create a snythetic muscle that would be 20 to 50 times stronger than a normal muscle. The said you could jump like 35 ft in a single jump and had a cool computer animation of a guy in the suit jumping up the side of a cliff. The camo for that suit is great too I cant wait to see if this thing turns out the way they want it.

Speaking of Bob Lazar, there was a really good UFO show on a couple weeks ago, mabye the best I had seen. I wish I could remember the name and channel but it might have been on the history channel. Unlike some of these shows this one was very well produced, and covered some interesting cases I had never heard about, including one involving the one very high ranking USAF officer who was in charge of security at a now closed British airbase, where he actually was in the woods and encountered the UFO. They also talked about some Argentine geological survey people on a boat by some islands off of the coast, and they took pictures of a UFO that were very convincing. Pretty damned interesting stuff.

In regards to the 16 airplanes, my guess is that a lot of these are technological demonstrators and not actually an operation aircraft, like the Bird of Prey. It's like saying "Hey, look what we did 10 years ago in an experimental aircraft, just guess what we have now." There is no advantage to revealling operational aircraft unless it is becoming too prohibitive to hide these and still use them in a role, like what they did with the F117. Hiding a secret aircraft requires more than just a place to hide it, you have to keep refueling crews quite as well as anyone else involved in normal operations. One aircraft that hasn't been talked about here hardly at all is the Big Black Delta, which from the sounds of it does use anti-gravity. My understanding is that there has ben quite a number of sightings of these and might be a good candidate for unveiling, that is if it even exists and not some figure of someones imagination. The AF current invetory of heavy lift aircraft is aging and needs a replacement, and this might be it.

I saw the same show the argentina case its a very good UFO case you had multiple wittness all reporting the same thing and a bunch of photos to back up there claim. I belive they described the UFO as looking like saturn on its edge as they saw it.

Hmm, im guessing we will see something about Total Thrust Vectoring to control the air craft insted of alerons and whatnot..... befor we see anything bout antigravity... BUT ive been wrong befor

Dag nabbit... I don't have satellite/cable (and was this a US only thing?? I live in the UK) Shame, still 16....sounds quite high. The high amount of UAVs as well......if this stuff is 20 years old as stated then why are we still having trouble with the Global Hawks (one crashed reasonably recently didn't it i.e. last year) which begs the question, surely there must have been a lot of crashes given the new technology for these UAVs that are to be declassified (if the source is correct).

Just my two pence

Originally posted by Infidellic
The high amount of UAVs as well......if this stuff is 20 years old as stated then why are we still having trouble with the Global Hawks (one crashed reasonably recently didn't it i.e. last year) which begs the question, surely there must have been a lot of crashes given the new technology for these UAVs that are to be declassified (if the source is correct).

Although there are kinks being worked out in UAVs still, I suspect that the whole point of using predator and global hawk in Iraq and Afghanistan is to learn things that can be applied to the more advanced UAVs still in development.
The predator and global hawk are the first field-test of the UCAV concept (predator was a UCAV all along, or it wouldn't have been named predator. there was an unarmed phase of field testing, that's all.) As these small aircraft reveal the abilities and failings of their design, and the impact of unique conditions, the lessons will be incorporated into a variety of related next-gen UCAVs.
Consider that firing a machine gun from a UCAV changes the weight distribution in a HUGE way. This isn't something that manned aircraft have dealt with before. So there are unknowns being experimented with. When a predator or global hawk is lost to an accident, you can't automatically assume that it was a flaw in the design. Maybe it was a failed test of something new: carrying a different weapon or piece of equipment? A new engine? A different wingspan? Attempting more difficult manuevers? You never know.

Am I the only one here questioning what this guy said? I mean come on! HE is not in the armed forces, HE is a "black aircraft author". I actually know people who DO know abouth these types of things, and they don't tell me anything. So why the hell is everyone jumping into bed with this guy and proclaiming his word as the be-all and end-all. Personally, I find it doubtfull that a VERY highranking official would give this guy information like that. I mean, it's not like he is just a friend of someone, HE WRITES BOOKS ON THE SUBJECT! That official not only could lose his job for telling someone this stuff, but could do time in jail. Think about it.....

AMM he could be lying but we will just have to wait and see if any new planes get shown to the public also to the member that asked no it was not only a US thing but most of it was.

I think I'm correct in saying that this guys source was the late head of Lockheed. Telling someone that the military is considering declassifying 16 planes isn't much of a revelation. In fact I'm sure the military is always considering 16 planes for declassification

Originally posted by intensity
I think I'm correct in saying that this guys source was the late head of Lockheed. Telling someone that the military is considering declassifying 16 planes isn't much of a revelation. In fact I'm sure the military is always considering 16 planes for declassification

It kinda is a big deal - if you give to the public knowladge of 16 individual planes, then say 4 are manned it gives a lot of info to anyone trying to spy on you. They know the minimum number of planes to try to spy on, they know how many are manned, and how many are unmanned. It's just info that should not be given out, and by most people in the field, wouldn't - just 2 cents from someone who is skeptical of just about anything that is hear say.

Trust me I'm skeptical of everything I hear too. I believe in logic and evidence. Fact of the matter is that everyone that matters knows that there are planes and we are so good at hiding this stuff they can have as many spy satellites and people on the ground they want, they ain't going to see #, and if they do see something, all it will tell them is they better not mess.

The history channel is quickly becoming my favorite channel.

[edit on 1-7-2004 by vzero7]

Well how do you know there's only 16??? (Damn i missed the show!!). There might be even more!