I'm guessing maybe 12 airframes with 3x ground control stations. Seems to be typical for most relatively long duration drones.
Yes and the USN should have developed it further I think.
Yes, the recon/bomber, the reason NGC backed out of the tanker, could not get the rights to display ARCO on the aircraft.
I swear most tankers end up with ARCO or some other gas station as their call signs anyways...
I know, all of the oil companies/gas stations rejected the KC-46, sorry I digressed. In regards, to the "180", I know that there is supposed to be a new resident at EAFB South Base, some new facilities were put in-place. B-21 CTF is at EAFB Main Base but something is afoot at SB?
Possibly. The B2s did that, but that was a result of the program getting slashed from
Worse still, it was 132 to 21. And the '1' was in fact a test aircraft IIRC.
Surely by now some people must know what it’s actual designation is?
AV-1 had a lot of mods done to bring it up to the current Block 30 configuration.
It feels a lot like the Global Hawk program. The first seven airframes were built as an Advanced Concept Technology Demonstration to evaluate the design and demonstrate its capabilities. At the time, there was such a high demand for the Global Hawk's capabilities that demonstrator aircraft were pressed into service in Southwest Asia. Also, the Global Hawk entered initial low-rate production while still in engineering and manufacturing development (EMD).
It blows my mind that so many airframes that big can remain hidden for so long.
It does seem odd, but on the other hand, if it is something that spends almost all of its life above 50,000 feet, then it seems a bit more achievable.
It reportedly takes off at night with all the ground handling operations being accomplished under blackout conditions, very similar to the early years of the F-117A Nighthawk. A sufficient number of tidbits have been published in the aviation press and discussed online to get a halfway decent understanding of the program's scope. And, although confirmation remains elusive, there have now been several long-distance pictures taken by civilians during daylight hours of an aircraft that resembles the presumed RQ-180 configuration.
When at the B-2 CTF in the early 90's during night shift, the base was blacked out, no moon and a very loud vehicle took of west to east, one amber nose light, two wing tip green lights, taxi/landing lights were on and it was long but the interesting part was the large rectangular afterburner nozzles and it climbed out like a bat of hell. Just wanted to add something involving ops in base blackout conditions.
I know, but still it’s an incredible achievement that we only have a few pictures, and still no real confirmation of where it’s based (although there have some pretty likely locations been pointed out).
That's certainly how I'd want to design a classified, VLO, high altitude recon plane. Give it at least 18 hours of flight endurance, so it can take off before twilight early in the morning and land after evening twilight the same day, even in summer. If no major work is needed, you might even be able to fly the plane again the next morning.
that's around the timeframe when the alleged SR-71 replacement program started?
Interesting, sounds like development was bumpy. Not sure I'd seen claims it has a weapons bay before.
Groom Lake would be the obvious place. It only takes off or lands after dark local time, and by the time the sun is up it's either at 60,000ft or in a hangar. And it's not possible to get to a place where you can see what is going on inside the base from the ground.
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