RQ-170 Sentinel

The RQ-170 Sentinel is a classified stealth uncrewed aerial system built by Lockheed Martin's Skunk Works and operated by the Air Force's 432nd Wing and 30th Reconnaissance Squadron at Creech and Tonopah. Its tailless flying-wing planform, radar-absorbent coatings, and low-observable sensor apertures let it penetrate denied airspace to collect imagery and signals intelligence where the MQ-9 cannot fly.

The Sentinel entered public view in 2009 and again in 2011 when one aircraft force-landed in Iran, but it is most widely associated with the 2011 Abbottabad raid that killed Osama bin Laden, where Sentinels provided overhead surveillance of the compound. Its continued service alongside rumored successors positions it as the USAF's dedicated high-threat ISR asset for near-peer contingencies.

Related Systems