Exclusive: Uniquely Configured RQ-170 Stealth Spy Drone Appears At Vandenberg AFB
It's the first photographic evidence that the famous but still extremely shy Sentinel has a presence at the Air Force's premier missile test and rocket-launch facility.
By Tyler RogowayMarch 3, 2017
The War Zone30th RSDronesRQ-170SentinelSkunk WorksstealthtestVandenberg AFBWraith
The RQ-170 Sentinel remains cloaked in mystery a decade after it was first photographed and nearly six years after the Skunk Works-built flying-wing drone spied on Osama Bin Laden's compound and later fell into the hands of the Iranian government. In recent years, Sentinels have been photographed and filmed just a handful of times flying in and out of Creech AFB, the USAF's master unmanned aircraft base located north of Las Vegas.
Although the RQ-170 may still have some presence at shadowy Tonopah Test Range Airport, where the 30th Reconnaissance Squadron was stood up to fly the type in secrecy in 2005, the unit is thought to have moved their operations from the remote base to Creech AFB in recent years. The War Zone's own Joseph Trevithick learned, via an official USAF document, that the 30th RS had also activated a detachment in 2011 at Vandenberg AFB, of all places. Now, years after this action had supposedly occurred, the first photographic proof of the RQ-170's presence at Vandenberg is shown below.
http://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zone/8036/exclusive-uniquely-configured-rq-170-stealth-spy-drone-appears-at-vandenberg-afb
