Declassified Docs Offer New Details About A Growing RQ-170 "Wraith" Force
The Air Force has been flying the stealthy RQ-170 for nearly a decade and a half, but has been very slow to disclose details about them.
By Joseph Trevithick May 3, 2021
The War Zone
The existence of the RQ-170 Sentinel stealth drone has been an acknowledged fact for more than 10 years now, and they've been flying for even longer, but the U.S. Air Force still offers few official details about their capabilities or their operational exploits. Now, newly declassified documents confirm that testing and evaluation of at least some of these unmanned aircraft continued at the secretive Tonopah Test Range in Nevada for a time after the main unit flying them formally moved to Creech Air Force Base in that same state. These records also provided details about plans to increase the size of the overall RQ-170 force and additional confirmation that these drones have an informal nickname, "Wraith."
The 30th Reconnaissance Squadron, the first unit publicly known to operate the RQ-170, officially moved from Tonopah to Creech on Aug. 30, 2011. This squadron had stood up, after decades of inactivity, to support the Sentinel program on Sept. 1, 2005. The unit had been reassigned to the 432nd Wing at Creech from the 57th Wing, one of the Air Force's premier test and evaluation units, at Nellis Air Force Base also in Nevada, on May 1, 2007.
https://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zone/40427/declassified-docs-offer-new-details-about-a-growing-rq-170-wraith-force
