A Lockheed Martin RQ-170 Sentinel stealth unmanned aerial system spied on Osama bin Laden the night before the special operations unit raid that successfully killed bin Laden at his mansion compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan, according to an initial report by the National Journal.
The U.S. Air Force has never released a photograph of the Sentinel, developed by Lockheed Martin’s Skunk Works, but it does acknowledge its existence, earning it the nickname the “Beast of Kandahar,” after the airfield it operates out of in Afghanistan.
The fatal attack was made by U.S. soldiers operating through Joint Special Operations Command, which is comprised of special forces from multiple U.S. military organizations. The Sentinel’s stealth nighttime spy mission was in conjunction with JSOC ground spotters, according to the National Journal.
A senior intelligence official, speaking 2 May at the Pentagon, said there were "multiple sources of intelligence, you know, that led us to where we are today with respect to this compound." Aside from information from detainees, "we had other sources — I can't describe those — that helped with the final intelligence picture," he said.
Though its capabilities have never been formally outlined, the mission suggests the Sentinel is an intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance aircraft, whose multiple secretive missions might have consistently been related to bin Laden. The RQ UAV designation indicates that the system did not carry any weapons. The stealth body of the aircraft lead experts to speculate that the system was being used either over Iran or Pakistan, since the Afghanistan Taliban, according to a 2009 AFP news agency report, does not use radar systems.
Initial reports of bin Laden’s death speculated that bin Laden might have been killed through an armed Predator UAS strike. Though the aircraft didn’t ultimately take part in Sunday’s mission, Predator was initially sent to Afghanistan during a 60-day trial mission in 2000 dubbed “Afghan Eyes,” in anticipation that the unmanned system had the potential to target bin Laden with cruise missiles.
UAS attacks more than tripled under the Obama administration and the leadership of Leon Panetta in the CIA, particularly along the Afghanistan-Pakistan border, since experts initially theorized bin Laden’s hideout was in that mountainous region.
Obama recently nominated Panetta to become the next Secretary of Defense. Gen. David Petraeus, current commander of U.S. Afghanistan forces, has been nominated to replace Panetta.
The U.S. Air Force has never released a photograph of the Sentinel, developed by Lockheed Martin’s Skunk Works, but it does acknowledge its existence, earning it the nickname the “Beast of Kandahar,” after the airfield it operates out of in Afghanistan.
The fatal attack was made by U.S. soldiers operating through Joint Special Operations Command, which is comprised of special forces from multiple U.S. military organizations. The Sentinel’s stealth nighttime spy mission was in conjunction with JSOC ground spotters, according to the National Journal.
A senior intelligence official, speaking 2 May at the Pentagon, said there were "multiple sources of intelligence, you know, that led us to where we are today with respect to this compound." Aside from information from detainees, "we had other sources — I can't describe those — that helped with the final intelligence picture," he said.
Though its capabilities have never been formally outlined, the mission suggests the Sentinel is an intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance aircraft, whose multiple secretive missions might have consistently been related to bin Laden. The RQ UAV designation indicates that the system did not carry any weapons. The stealth body of the aircraft lead experts to speculate that the system was being used either over Iran or Pakistan, since the Afghanistan Taliban, according to a 2009 AFP news agency report, does not use radar systems.
Initial reports of bin Laden’s death speculated that bin Laden might have been killed through an armed Predator UAS strike. Though the aircraft didn’t ultimately take part in Sunday’s mission, Predator was initially sent to Afghanistan during a 60-day trial mission in 2000 dubbed “Afghan Eyes,” in anticipation that the unmanned system had the potential to target bin Laden with cruise missiles.
UAS attacks more than tripled under the Obama administration and the leadership of Leon Panetta in the CIA, particularly along the Afghanistan-Pakistan border, since experts initially theorized bin Laden’s hideout was in that mountainous region.
Obama recently nominated Panetta to become the next Secretary of Defense. Gen. David Petraeus, current commander of U.S. Afghanistan forces, has been nominated to replace Panetta.
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