If you point your Google Earth client towards Palmdale, California, you will find a very interesting imagery signature at Lockheed Martin’s Advanced Development Program Facility.
Widely known as “Skunk Works” LM’s Advanced Development Program Facility is where some of the most adveniristic “black projects” are developed.
Although it’s a bit hard to believe that any new drone (or secret variant of a known one) would be quietly sitting open-air for any satellite to see, what Open Source GEOINT has found is at least worth a mention.
Located next to an F-16 (mock-up?), there is a covered object whose shape is quite similar to the one of the RQ-170 Sentinel, the stealthy drone captured in Iran at the beginning of December 2011.
The wingspan exceeds the one of a radar evading Sentinel and the left wing appears to be slightly broken, as if the packaged drone was damaged.
My colleague Zach Rosenberg found this interesting satellite image of Lockheed Martin's facility at Plant 42 in Palmdale, California. It looks a lot like a RQ-170, but bigger... in fact, the shape--from what we can make out--looks a lot like the P.420. But who knows? It's not like they're going to tell us what it is...
