The Air Force's Elusive RQ-170 Sentinel Drone Sighted Over California
The "Beast of Kandahar" is now the "Beast of Vandenberg."
Gene Blevins/LA Daily News/SCNG
By Kyle Mizokami
Mar 6, 2017
602
One of the Air Force's most secret aircraft was recently seen over the skies of Southern California, sporting new equipment that points to new secret missions. The RQ-170 Sentinel drone was photographed flying over Vandenberg Air Force Base by photographers there to cover a satellite launch.
Developed in secret by Lockheed Martin, the RQ-170 Sentinel was dubbed "The Beast of Kandahar" in 2009 when it was photographed for the first time at Kandahar Airfield in Afghanistan. Highly classified, the sighting was the first indication the RQ-170 even existed.
The Air Force has reportedly operated the RQ-170 near Iran and North Korea, using it for so-called "national collection missions" to collect secret intelligence. A Sentinel was flying over Osama bin Laden's compound in 2011 when Navy SEALs killed him, and in 2011 Iran reported one crashed on its territory. The Air Force acknowledged the loss of an RQ-170 and asked for it back but Iran refused.
http://www.popularmechanics.com/military/aviation/news/a25559/rq-170-sentinel-sighted/
