Lockheed Martin RQ-170 Sentinel

RQ-170 Sentinel, or "All" ("Observer"), is an unmanned aerial vehicle, created with the use of American technology "Stealth". Projecting - flying wing. Marking «R» refers to a method of using the plane - Reconnaissance, Intelligence. A «Q» stands for unmanned.

The history of the UAV

Unmanned vehicles developed Skunkworks - A special team from the US company Lockheed Martin. At the moment, for a general overview there is little information, because the unit is basically classified. We only know that a wingspan of about twenty meters. It have built special sensors.

The official existence of the new US Air Force UAV confirmed 4 December 2009. RQ-170 Sentinel is a secret development, so the basic flight-technical characteristics of the UAV are still unknown. Among the information data surfaced information that the mechanism of the device and the design of the UAV is much more complicated and above the well-known unmanned Predator. A special non-metallic coating makes it virtually invisible in different wavelength ranges. According to the American newspaper TheWashingtonPost, this development cost the US Department of Defense $ 6 million.

Naturally, exploiting its only US Air Force Air Combat Command Mopona directly at the site in Nevada. At the armed UAV took 14 September 2005 year 30-th reconnaissance squadron.

The history knows only two applications of this device razdelyvatelnogo. RQ-170 Sentinel was first spotted at the base, stationed in Kandahar, Afghanistan. In 2007 year it was used as a refuge for the observer of the world famous terrorist Osama bin Laden. Directly involved in the UAV operation in Abbottabad on the Elimination of American special forces leader of the terrorist group "Al Qaeda."

Lockheed Martin RQ-170 Sentinel video

The second known case occurred in Iran. In early December 2011, one unit of RQ-170 Sentinel disappeared in western Afghanistan. For unknown reasons, the UAV was lost, and it disappeared from the radar. At the same time, the Iranian authorities claimed that they had shot down an American UAV. In response, US representatives completely refuted this information. After some time in the world press there was information that the Iranian air defense could neutralize the American UAV with the help of the Russian radio intelligence. However, this turned out to be a fiction, because even in 2012 year in Russia there was no such technology. The tests conducted by the Russian troops in the Astrakhan region of the EW showed hopelessness of the technique in attempts to suppress the GPS signals of the enemy.

Yet in December 2011 years on television in Iran showed footage of an American drone, however, no visible damage to the eye.

12 December American President Barack Obama appealed to the Iranian authorities to return RQ-170 Sentinel back, to which the representative of the Iranian Foreign Ministry passed a negative response. After a small amount of time, Iran announced its desire to create its own UAV based on the American model, and the Iranian serial model will largely exceed the basic American model. Six months later, in April, Amir Ali Hajizade, the head of the IRIS (Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps) aerospace unit, announced the end of the complete replication of the American UAV by Iranian specialists. He also said that work began on the construction of an exact copy. In response, US Secretary of Defense L. Panet expressed his doubts about the possibility of such a thing.

RQ-170 Sentinel features:

• Team: 0

• Length: 14 ft 9 in (4.5 m)

• Wingspan: 65 ft 7 in (19.99 m)

• Height: 6 feet (1.8 m) estimated

• Powerplant: 1 × Garrett TFE731 or turbofan General Electric TF34

• Service ceiling: 50,000 feet (15,000 m)

Other UAVs

warplanes