Gotcha! Desert Prowler Unveiled


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Gotcha! Desert Prowler Unveiled

Posted by Bill Sweetman at 12/1/2009 10:41 AM CST

A photograph of the Beast of Kandahar, the classified stealth UAV first reported in April, has emerged on a blog linked to left-wing French newspaper Liberation.

The photo confirms that the previous artists' impressions were largely accurate. The jet has long, slender outer wings, spanning as much as 80 feet, mated to a stouter, deeper centerbody with a pointed nose. One important detail: the overwing fairings are not B-2-like inlets, but cover some kind of equipment - satcoms on one side, perhaps, and a sensor on the other.

The most likely provenance of the airframe is Lockheed Martin's Skunk Works, and it is very likely to be associated with the Desert Prowler program - unearthed by historian Peter Merlin and "patchologist" Trevor Paglen. More background here, but it should be noted that Dave Fulghum reported in June 2001 on a plan to acquire 12-24 high altitude, stealthy UAVs. The effort had gathered pace after a US EP-3 SIGINT aircraft was forced to land in China in April, and went further underground after 9/11. It's believed that the first of a small batch of aircraft flew in late 2005 and were operational in Afghanistan in 2007 (where this photo was probably taken.)

Despite superficial similarity the Desert Prowler is not an immediate relative of the Polecat technology demonstrator tested in 2006. The latter incorporated advanced aerodynamic and structural features for a future long-range, very high-altitude UAV, while Desert Prowler is more conservative.

Perhaps the biggest mystery, though, is what the birds were doing in Kandahar. Why use a stealth aircraft against an adversary that doesn't have radar? And if it was part of some Secret Squirrel operation against the Taliban, what in the blue blazes was it doing outdoors in daylight?

Comments (18) | Permanent Link

Tags: ar99, desert, prowler, stealth, UAV

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Solomon wrote:

China is right next door. Easy access to a hard to enter country?

12/1/2009 12:37 PM CST

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ghemago wrote:

Could be because of the payload rather than the stealth airframe...

12/1/2009 12:53 PM CST

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jhae22 wrote:

Very interesting...any idea whether it's a USAF, USN, or CIA project?

Stating the obvious, it seems like this UAV would be useful for overflying Iran. Possibly China, but then you'd have to fly over most of the western PRC to see the interesting stuff.

12/1/2009 1:19 PM CST

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RSF wrote:

I am going to start by saying that the following comments are not based on any secret or confidential information, and are only conjecture.

I would hazard to guess that this UAV was being used to monitor the Pakistan weapons research facility at Kahuta. Since the Taliban has been targeting the personnel involved with the nuclear weapons program for sometime now, this would be a stealthy way to keep tabs on the both the personnel and the weapons/nuclear materials. There also continues to be rumors of Chinese technical assistance with both nuclear and conventional weapons programs, many of which are based in and around Kahuta.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kahuta_Research_Laboratories

12/1/2009 2:29 PM CST

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ghemago wrote:

Great! We have at least 2 plausible targets if that bird has enough endurance...

12/1/2009 2:45 PM CST

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Marcase wrote:

Good point re Kahuta.

My bet was on Iran, as everyone seemed to be so surprised at that second nuclear facility the Iranians were forced to admit to have.

12/1/2009 3:25 PM CST

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Bobbymike wrote:

My guess is that you have a Iranian defensive systems probing platform. Put this platform up with a Rivet Joint or other platform to record all the electronic and radar noise coming from Iran.

12/1/2009 4:04 PM CST

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C. Reed wrote:

This patent by Lockheed Martin dating back 12-13 years seems to bear some similarity to the Beast:

http://www.dataviewbooks.com/beast.html

12/1/2009 5:18 PM CST

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jhae22 wrote:

Great point about Pakistan. The role is probably a combination of everything mentioned thus far.

Seems someone wasn't careful enough to keep this thing away from the cameras...

The patent looks similar, but appears to have some differences. Good find.

12/1/2009 7:15 PM CST

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Geogen wrote:

Regarding the 'up to 80' wingspan', maybe that could be the 'full scale' dimension to a scale-model test-bed?

To me, the wheel size just seems too out of proportion especially if this a/c was truly 25% larger than X-47? It just seems a bit smaller than might be first considered?

My gut-tell is this is a smaller bird than suspected, or only a 'sub-scale' semi-autonomous UCAV, possibly operating with an actual ISR package..

Who knows, this thing could be French too, lol!

12/2/2009 4:00 AM CST

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