The United States may use its highly classified drone, known as the RQ-180, in the war against iran.
Recently, a series of photos appeared online showing an aircraft with a flying wing aerodynamic configuration, which some Greek media mistakenly identified as a B-2 bomber.
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Why Greek media? This mysterious aircraft made an emergency landing at Larissa Air Base in Greece. It’s assumed the landing took place there, though as The War Zone notes, there’s no official confirmation of these details yet. What is clear is that the aircraft in the photos is definitely not a B-2 bomber. Although it somewhat resembles the latest B-21 Raider, it’s most likely the mysterious drone.
Moreover, there was also a version online that this could be the Israeli military’s RA-01 drone, but it’s significantly smaller in size. Besides, it’s not entirely clear how it could have ended up so far west.
It’s also questionable whether the Greek Larissa air base is a home base for the secret aircraft or whether it simply made a forced landing there. The fact that it was spotted during daytime suggests it may have had problems, since logically it should have returned at night to have less chance of being spotted and identified.
The mysterious stealth UAV RQ-180 is a development by Northrop Grumman, which won the contract, beating out Lockheed Martin as well as Boeing. The deal was signed in 2008, with deliveries of serial production units starting in 2013.
This drone is a vivid example of how the U.S. actually knows how to implement truly secret projects. Despite the RQ-180’s first flight taking place back in 2010, the first photo of this unmanned aerial vehicle appeared only in 2020 over Edwards Air Force Base. A year later, the U.S. Air Force revealed on video this new secret drone, which received the name White Bat.
The RQ-180 is a reconnaissance platform. The U.S. Operation Epic Fury in iran should be an ideal place to demonstrate the capabilities of this drone, which among other things is equipped with an AESA radar as well as passive electronic intelligence means.
In 2022, it was reported that the U.S. plans to retire its RQ-4 Global Hawk drones by 2027. The RQ-180 White Bat is ultimately supposed to become their replacement.
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