Say Hello to the RQ-180

reply to post by gariac


Exactly. So why does it being white or grey or any other color matter. Which is the point I was making.

Radar doesn't care if it's white, or black, or grey, or silver, or any other color.

reply to post by Zaphod58


Hey!! i was only asking, if it is reflective (Silver Bare etc) it would glint in the sunshine ........ yes?

reply to post by corblimeyguvnor


And I was quite polite in answering that this will operate at high enough altitudes that you won't be able to see it visually from the ground. This is a high altitude UAV, and even with binoculars you won't be able to see it.

The other replies were to someone else, not you.

reply to post by Zaphod58



Do you know around about what ceiling this plane will have?

reply to post by Stealthbomber


Not exactly, but it's a high flier this time from what I've been able to piece together from various places.

Interesting story of someone that probably/may have seen the RQ-180 and some of it's physical features:

In mid-2011 a freelance photographer — I agreed to withhold his name — was visiting the Air Force’s Tonopah Test Range in Nevada, a somewhat less secretive adjunct to Groom Lake. While walking along the tarmac with an officer guide, the photographer spotted, some 150 yards away, what appeared at first to be a Sentinel drone parked in an open hangar. But upon closer inspection, the photog noticed details inconsistent with the recently-revealed Sentinel. The engine air intake was different. The skin material seemed less metallic. And the craft was apparently much bigger than the Sentinel, which by then had appeared only in grainy photos taken in Afghanistan. (Tehran’s capture of a crashed Sentinel was still a few months off, but the photographer later said that the details revealed by Iranian footage of the wrecked UAV only confirmed his earlier impressions.) It was clear the Air Force had not intended the photographer to see the new ‘bot, whatever it was. The colonel leading the tour grew uncomfortable. “I was specifically asked not to photograph it and I complied,” the photog said of the mystery drone. Recalling the encounter, the photographer concluded he had seen a new variant of the Sentinel. He was not aware at that time that Northrop was developing, and the Air Force and CIA were testing in and around Area 51, a brand-new, larger and better UAV. It’s possible that’s what he saw. The RQ-180. The secretive future of drone warfare, long in development and finally, today, outed by the press.

Source

reply to post by Sammamishman


That's the one I was referring to in the NM thread, the super sentinel, but I got told I was wrong lol

reply to post by Zaphod58


Please delete.

reply to post by Zaphod58


So sort of like an unmanned U-2. Like the old days when it could fly over denied territory.

reply to post by Stealthbomber


You were? I don't remember that.

Awesome bird. I wonder what the next gen looks like.

Before the RQ-170 was revealed albeit not fully, I joined ATS to show how small the vehicle actually was in reality. People were talking of massive drone, huge wing spans, oh really anything and everything.

I'd like to point out a small detail a whole heap of folks have over looked, and its all to do with how you learn to fly. Bear with me.

Learning to fly.

Firstly, you have ground instruction, lots and lots of it. Theory. Then, you have a handful of flights in a dual seat training prop aircraft with an instructor who takes the entire flight bar small snatches of it. 'You have control' 'I have control' situation.

Then 'You have control' is for more and more until the day when you flick the check list for take off, you sqwark the tower, you take off, you land. The instructors there for the ride and emergencies.

So what next? success is met with a dual set jet trainer. Nice. Same rinse and repeat method. Whammo. Here is where you learn the (as closely as possible) flight characteristics of the bad boy you will hopefully one day Captain.

# Now you are wondering 'what the hell is he gibbering on about'. Think of this then. First is a Reaper, second is an RQ-170 TRAINING AIRCRAFT, then is the bad boy, the real reason why you at Creech on a flying wing conversion course.

My reasoning? no one, but nobody gets to fly a new tailless type of UAV without first getting used to the characteristics and foibles of a tailless airframe. Reaper to Bad Boy? never happen.

This is why the RQ-170 has all the Reaper parts internally. It is in my opinion a training airframe, and the reason why in Afghanistan it looked so hastily thrown together and laughed at sat in the Iranian gym. The real toys? well they are at the 30th hangers already and this shot across the bows by the news people is that they finally have enough pieces to try force the USAFs hand.

Problem I have? well, the wing tips suck, the exhaust sucks, the nose sucks... in fact their entire NG concept sucks. The X-47B has that hasty thrown on exhaust because NG screwed up their design. Its not going to appear on a stealthy airframe when its got a barn door signature now is it?

reply to post by Astr0


I have the distinct feeling that what we're seeing, is nothing like what it really looks like. The photographer that apparently saw it, mistook it for a Sentinel on first sight. There's no mistaking that for a Sentinel, unless you're blind, and know nothing about aircraft.

reply to post by Zaphod58


Utterly agree. 100%.

Problem with the UAV world is that Afghanistan gave not one, but 5 contractor teams an open playground. From small drones to cranked kites to pack hunting jet powered low flying 40mm grenade dropping swarms. They did it all.

reply to post by Astr0


That's one of the things about Afghanistan and Iraq. When you have uncontested airspace, you can do all that, and more. The problem, that they're slowly learning, is what happens when you have contested airspace, and UAVs that aren't long legged, or stealthy.

Zaphod58
reply to post by Astr0

 

That's one of the things about Afghanistan and Iraq. When you have uncontested airspace, you can do all that, and more. The problem, that they're slowly learning, is what happens when you have contested airspace, and UAVs that aren't long legged, or stealthy.

Uh huh.

Too much doctrinal change for 'low intensity' and not enough 'Hey guys and girls, we need a 21st Century Tier-3++ QUARTZ type airframes loadout

Zaphod58
reply to post by corblimeyguvnor

 

And I was quite polite in answering that this will operate at high enough altitudes that you won't be able to see it visually from the ground. This is a high altitude UAV, and even with binoculars you won't be able to see it.

The other replies were to someone else, not you.

edit on 12/6/2013 by Zaphod58 because: (no reason given)

The higher the altitude, the darker the appropriate color in order to blend in better optically from the ground. Which is why SR-71 and U-2 are grey black.

The craft is quite large, not convinced that it would be undetectable with binoculars, and surely automatic telescopes with CCD's and signal processing software to search for aircraft have been invented and deployed.

reply to post by Astr0


Exactly. That's what happened to the UCLASS. It went from a 21st century game changer, to an Avenger based on a ship.

reply to post by mbkennel


That's only if they haven't incorporated anything else in the skin. There have been some interesting experiments over the years that would make the color meaningless at any altitude.

Zaphod58
reply to post by mbkennel

 

That's only if they haven't incorporated anything else in the skin. There have been some interesting experiments over the years that would make the color meaningless at any altitude.

Funny that its easier to get a light base to go darker than a dark base to go lighter.