Satellite Spots Lockheed’s Mystery Drone

A commercial satellite has spotted a mysterious unmanned aerial vehicle parked at Lockheed Martin’s Skunk Works facility in Palmdale, California. The orbital snapshot was reportedly taken on Dec. 4, but became public only last week in a blog post by George Kaplan, a self-described “open source” intelligence analyst who relies solely on publicly available imagery.

Wrapped in what appears to be plastic, parked at an angle next to an F-16 on a concrete apron near the U.S. Air Force’s top-secret Plant 42, the supposed UAV shares the basic dimensions and overall flying-wing shape of many of today’s jet-powered drones. Using the 50-foot-long F-16 as a yardstick, it seems the UAV has a wingspan of around 60 feet.

Mystery Drone

I don't have a whole lot to say about this that already hasn't been said. I just found this and thought I would share it with ATS. It is nice that we can keep an eye on what the government is up to from time to time. It's just very unsettling that satellite image technology is so advanced, and drones are becoming so advanced.

reply to post by SUICIDEHK45


And wow it looks just like the other drones, except hidden under a tarp.

reply to post by SUICIDEHK45


Looks like the drone has a tea cosy on it but according to the shape, it looks like the one Iran in mass producing.

Originally posted by Ml5edtoDeath
reply to post by SUICIDEHK45

 

Looks like the drone has a tea cosy on it but according to the shape, it looks like the one Iran in mass producing.

Least will be able to spot their drones. Their drones are pink.

Isn't that what they sent to the president after asking for it back?



www.nowtheendbegins.com...

looks more like a stealth bomber

UAV's are a great idea until AI catches up in the civilian arenas then we all better watch out.

Lockheed Martin P-420 LightStar UAV bomber


Mystery solved

I think the cross, found above and between, the fighter and the UAV, is interesting as well.

reply to post by Violater1


Yes, good catch. That shadow is odd to say the least.

reply to post by Violater1


That looks like a catapult system for a smaller UAV.

Some more sources about it in my thread.

www.abovetopsecret.com...

Hmmm, Does it look like something is attached to the back of that F-16, not the tail wing, just in front, I grew around F-16 my whole life, but I dont remember a big bulge just before the tail, anyways could be the way im looking at it, maybe a little to hard. Wonder whats under those other tarps, one looks to have a convex shape for the top.

reply to post by Glassbender777


That F-16 is just a mockup, so it could be that they added things to test on the mockup, to see if they would work on a real F-16 airframe.

On second thought, those 3 other tarps to the side look like a weird 3-stage rocket, the very bottom right first stage, the tarp right above it maybe the second stage, not sure about the other tarps weird to say the least

I see this object shows up in GE back to 7/15/2011.
So it has been there at least 5 months.

EDITED TO ADD:
Going back through GE history, I find this object close by, at 34°37'17.23"N, 118° 6'24.98"W on the 6/5/2009 imagery. I believe it is the same object. If so then it is at least 2 1/2 years old.

I need to smoke the same thing you guys are smoking, because I don't see a rocket on the objects to the bottom-right corner. As for the f-16 mock-up? How do you know is just a mock-up?

Wow, I seriously need to consume something. Great imagination on the "rocket" by the way!

reply to post by TheEnlightenedOne


As I said earlier, the "rocket" looks like a catapult for a small UAS.

As for the F-16, among other things, it doesn't have wingtip missile rails.

Google Earth pic

You can pretty clearly see the rails in this pic.

Originally posted by Violater1
I think the cross, found above and between, the fighter and the UAV, is interesting as well.

Looks like a aircraft tow bar. Could be anything but that is my guess.

reply to post by Zaphod58


I take that back, you are right I forgot about the damn rails. I was just thinking AIM-9 all the way and thought they were just missing!

Thanks for correcting me!

reply to post by Xeven


It's shaped wrong to be a tow bar. You can see from the shadow that it's triangular shaped. The tow bars we used were just metal tubes with connectors on either end.

reply to post by TheEnlightenedOne


I wasn't sure myself, because I didn't know how well they'd show up from that distance.