BY ROBERT BECKHUSEN TAKING A LOOK BEHIND THE HEADLINES
‘SKUNK WORKS’ — WHAT’S OUT THERE NOW…?
THE US MILITARY, has within the past several years, revealed the existence of previously secret surveillance drones such as the RQ-170 and the RQ-180, a new manned stealth bomber project and concepts from the defense industry for spy and strike aircraft capable of traveling at hypersonic speeds, including Lockheed Martin’s SR-72 and Boeing’s competing Valkyrie II concepts, the latter in January 2018.
Cue a near-truism. When there are so many far-flung blueprints on the drawing board, and as so many real-life aircraft appear into the public view, the US Air Force, correspondingly, is likely at the same time very busy with so-called ‘black’ projects. These are the advanced, covert aircraft programs that are almost entirely hidden from the public eye, and intended to help the US military leap ahead of its adversaries over the coming decades.
Many of them never make it to the operational stage. It is exceedingly likely that the USAF is currently flying weird and shadowy aircraft that will never see service, let alone combat — but will inform other aircraft that do.
While they might be highly secretive, long-term st…
