Given all the attention that the RQ-170 Sentinel stealth drone has been receiving lately, we thought it would be cool to published these rare-ish photos of the bird taxiing around Kandahar airport in Afghanistan. The pictures were published on the secret projects web forum a while ago but you could only view them if you were a member; they’ve since emerged on the open web at the militaryphotos.net forum.
Notice how you can clearly make out the terminal buildings of Kandahar airport — built in the 1950s by USAID — along with a C-17 and what looks like a STOL turboprop airlifter in the background.
Enjoy.
{ 29 comments… read them below or add one }
Its a very cute little drone.
This is a very clever play by the US. It's a trojan horse. Stupid fuckin iranians, hahaha. Wait til they plug in and get Stuxnet version 2.. =)
They stole a C-5 too????
Come on man read before you write
C-17 sorry. ahhhhhhh!
No that's not it
Ironic isn't it. We paid for the Kandahar airport infrastructure through USAID and now we're the principal user. I'm not sure how to regard that…a big failure…or a big success?
We've expanded the airfield several times its original size since we moved in. When we first took it in 2001 we housed a couple battalions there. Now we're up to something like 30,000 troops and civilians. The Afghans have a portion of the airfield sectioned off as the Kandahar International Airport and make regular flights to who knows where.
Big success. If you look at USAID funding carefully, it always goes back to State Department.
the c17 is multinational , u can hav one for ~$200m. A qatari prince bought one for his horses…
So long to the Beast of Kandahar.
The STOL airliner looks like an Antonov An-32.
You’re correct that is a private airline that owns a AN-32. I run by it all the time.
The Beast Died as it lived. A "hero".
I hereby declare this thread to be about one thing…somebody please tell me what is in this shoulder housings. Is it really just antennae (?)?
Nice little toy just should have never "loan" it to the Agency. They seem to always break DOD toys.
Seen these lil babies take off a few times. Thought they were the Navy's new toys here for 'test runs'. Oh well, they still look awesome on takeoff.
Can be this drone "a enemy radar probe" to test as air defenses perform against B2 bomber?.
Yep…..
Yep x2. In case you haven't noticed, we're gearing up for another shindig another god forsaken sh*thole.
I wonder when the Iraianian's are gonna have the fire sale between the Russians and Chinese for the RQ-170?
I would bet techs from Mig & Sukhoi are in country now………………………………………..
Well, there's currently a really neat video of what purports to be the RQ-170 on Fars News
i dunno, something looks fishy about the drone in the background of the articles image, looks like it was carved from foam using a reference image
It does look a bit plasticy- but maybe its carbon fibre?
I really hoped that we had enough smart savvy computer geniuses in our nation that we could protect our vital resources from a freakin moslem puter hacker in Iran. WTF, over.
Dude, one pissed off Army private caused the whole Wikkileaks scandal.
Am I mistaken or do I see A-10s behind the walls? The Warthogs of Kandahar are inhabited by pilots who need clear canopies to use their primary sensor, the Mk I Mod 0 eyball.
Fake or not, thankfully there is no bloody, abused pilot to display on propaganda TV. Thank-you and Merry Christmas to all those involved in producing and operating this system.