The U.S. Air Force Has a Secretive New Stealth Drone: Introducing the RQ-180

The U.S. Air Force has begun to deploy a new class of stealth drone, which is currently operation from Beale Air Force Base in Northern California and has an airframe based on a flying wing design closely resembling a scaled down B-2 Spirit bomber. The drone is designed with a high endurance to carry out surveillance missions over faraway territories, and is intended to prioritise stealth and altitude to evade enemy air defences. The platform was designed in Area 51, where many sensitive technologies for military aircraft are developed and tested, and has reportedly flown surveillance flights over the Arctic to test its capabilities. The aircraft follows on from its predecessor the RQ-170, which was manufactured in limited numbers in the 2000s for surveillance missions over well defended enemy airspace. The RQ-170 was notably commandeered over Iran using advanced electronic warfare systems and acquired by Iran's armed forces, with its technologies subsequently used to develop a new series of Iranian drones and suspected of being shared with allied states including China and North Korea.

The RQ-180 is expected to improve on the capabilities of its predecessor with a longer range and superior stealth capabilities, and could potentially be able to operate intercontinentally allowing it to survey targets in Europe and East Asia from the continental United States. Reports of test flights over the Arctic suggest that the drone may have been designed with operations in extreme climates in mind, including China’s northern provinces and the increasingly contested Arctic regions. The B-2 is considered the stealthiest aircraft in service anywhere in the world today, although the RQ-180 is speculated to challenge this title with a more sophisticated airframe developed over 20 years later. It remains a considerably possibility that stealth technologies developed for the American B-21 Raider next generation bomber could also have benefitted the design. The RQ-180 is reportedly over 30% larger than the Global Hawk stealth drone - making it one of the largest military drones in service anywhere in the world which could very likely retain an intercontinental range. Images of the RQ-180 have yet to be unveiled, and like its larger counterpart the B-21 Raider stealth bomber secrecy will impede efforts by potential adversaries to develop countermeasures to the design.