New Stealth Drone Believed to be Housed at Area 51.

security.blogs.cnn.com...

Not a big drone fan but this one looks pretty cool. The rq-180 is so top secret the air force couldn't admit its existence to CNN.

Some say it can fly for 24 hours and can travel as high as 11 miles and it can also listen to cell phone calls.

Butler suggested the drone may even be able to carry sensors that can listen to cell phone calls and any “activities on enemy frequency, radar activities, that sort of thing.”

Fire missiles, or drop concrete bombs - that sort of thing?


-see recent dead car crash victims.....

reply to post by catfishjoe


This was the very first thing I thought of:



That's one ANGRY drone.

Snf, OP!

Although it’s not confirmed, the magazine suggested the drone could be operating as soon as 2015.

The program is so classified the Air Force would not confirm its existence to CNN or Aviation Week.

I have a hard time believing anything in this story. How can CNN release top secret information about US defense technology and not be charged with treason?

My guess is this is old technology and for some reason they now want the information released to the public.
I mean, the US government still doesn't have stealth capabilities on operational drones? I doubt it.

reply to post by DeepVisions


In was curious about that myself. Amy Butler and Bill Sweetman are credible right?

DeepVisions

I mean, the US government still doesn't have stealth capabilities on operational drones? I doubt it.

There is "stealth" and there is VLO. The term is somewhat abused by the media. This would be a VLO high-endurance, high-altitude platform. Other than speculating that "some experts think it may...", "could include", etc, there isn't much meat to the article other than that such a platform exists and is moving towards IOC. That isn't exactly a state secret.

AW&ST isn't what it used to be in the 80's and 90's, but it's certainly a very reputable source. It used to be called "Aviation Leak" because it got it's grubby little hands on many inside scoops such as this one.

As the article hints, once it reaches operational status, it isn't likely to be based out at Groom. In that event, the effort (cost) of keeping its existence (which everyone speculates about anyway) in the black is prohibitive.

There is a long going thread on this over at Aircraft Projects forum:

www.abovetopsecret.com...

eta: never mind, in the words of Hagrid, I should not have said that.

reply to post by Bedlam


That's Ok, you can always U2U me that info.

Sammamishman
There is a long going thread on this over at Aircraft Projects forum:

www.abovetopsecret.com...

Please add further comments to the ongoing discussion in the above linked thread.
Thanks

**Thread Closed**