Northrop Grumman "RQ-180"

Another thing to remember is that the lifespan of the RQ-180's airframe may have been rather limited from the outset, given the design's reported descent from LM's Polecat program, which had reducing procurement and other costs as the overiding priority, at the cost of pretty much everything else. A beancounter's would be dream, and everybody else's nightmare.
 
Q-nimbus said:
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/09/05/us/navy-seal-north-korea-trump-2019.html



If true, and assuming the Chinese keep watch of the North Korean skies, it seems to indicate to me that the Chinese have a way of locating RQ-170’s or RQ-180’s. Typically the RQ-170 is perfectly equipped for these sort of missions, and the RQ-180 as far as we know, too.

The only reason not to have a stealth drone overhead for recon and intel is because they knew it would compromise the mission.

Since the RQ-170 crash in Iran back in 2009 the Iranians surely must have figured out a way to detect it, and if they know, the Chinese and Russians certainly know as well.

I have suspected for a while now that the RQ-180 is no longer active. It’s been too long since any sightings, no proof of a unit who operates it or where it’s based, nor any infrastructure associated with the program.

Back in 2019 the RQ-180 was operational as far as we know. If it’s equipped for these kind of missions, surely it would have been there, overhead and providing intel.

So either the RQ-180 has a different mission goal, or it wasn’t operational, or it couldn’t be be used because the Chinese can detect it. We don’t know which one it is, but I suspect the latter as the most plausible.

Another piece of (circumstantial) evidence why I suspect the RQ-180 isn’t around anymore.
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I think the same , It would explain why the rumor about a Lockheed successor.
 
Q-nimbus said:
I have suspected for a while now that the RQ-180 is no longer active. It’s been too long since any sightings, no proof of a unit who operates it or where it’s based, nor any infrastructure associated with the program.

Back in 2019 the RQ-180 was operational as far as we know. If it’s equipped for these kind of missions, surely it would have been there, overhead and providing intel.

So either the RQ-180 has a different mission goal, or it wasn’t operational, or it couldn’t be be used because the Chinese can detect it.
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As noted in an earlier post, operating units for the RQ-180 include:

427th Reconnaissance Squadron, Beale AFB, California (operational reconnaissance, aircraft may not be collocated)
74th Reconnaissance Squadron, Beale AFB, California (Formal Training Unit)
Det. 2, 9th Operations Group, Edwards AFB, California (OT&E)
417th Test & Evaluation Squadron, Edwards AFB, California (OT&E)
Mad Hatters, CTF at Groom Lake, Nevada (DT&E)
Det. 4, 9th Operations Group, Andersen AFB, Guam (deployment support)


The 2019 AvWeek article about the RQ-180 stirred up a very strong backlash from AFOSI. According to one account I heard, a few people lost security clearances during the investigation. True or not, I don't know. The USAF "Men In Black" certainly put the frighteners on program personnel, that's for sure.
 
The other possibility is that “RQ-180” operations continue but simply manage to do so unseen, either by flying at night or some other means. It occurs to me it would not be hard to make an aircraft blend into its background with modern LEDs. You could pretty much do that just using commercial equipment these days.
 
The colour of the B-21 does seem to lend credence to the rumour that the RQ-180 was white rather than the darker colours of yesteryear.
 
Flyaway said:
The colour of the B-21 does seem to lend credence to the rumour that the RQ-180 was white rather than the darker colours of yesteryear.
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I believe there were only three sightings total, and it did appear to be off white or very light grey. That alone probably makes it fairly low visibility in daylight, and at night it is probably invisible to most any typical civilian observers.
 
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Josh_TN said:
I believe there were only three sightings total, and it did appear to be off white or very light grey. That alone probably makes it fairly low visibility in daylight, and at night it is probably invisible to most any typical civilian observers.
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A very pale gray, like the B-21 is painted in, will disappear in the haze.
 
I'm pretty sure it's white (and large!) as seen at the suspected crash site of December 2016 near Groomlake. A small artwork is included for reference. ;) (37.25066911150662, -115.69852276544648)
 

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Yes, that’s correct. That crash happened on grass, and the hull sustained serious damage. The degree of ground impact and the potential involvement of fire remain undetermined. Based on available observations, the airframe appears to have remained intact. Furthermore, imagery provides clear evidence of surface markings along the desert floor suggesting it was traveling in a western direction.
 
delta12 said:
Yes, that’s correct. That crash happened on grass, and the hull sustained serious damage. The degree of ground impact and the potential involvement of fire remain undetermined. Based on available observations, the airframe appears to have remained intact. Furthermore, imagery provides clear evidence of surface markings along the desert floor suggesting it was traveling in a western direction.
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Having seen high resolution images of that area for that time period I will disagree.
 
I’m curious where you came across that and if you could share the some more. I've seen plenty of imagery pre and post crash of that site. But some things I can't explain concerning the Sentinel-2 imagery of that specific moment.
 
RQ-180 used to track Maduro?

The American spy agency, the people said, produced the intelligence that led to the capture of Mr. Maduro, monitoring his position and movements with a fleet of stealth drones that provided near constant monitoring over Venezuela, in addition to the information provided by its Venezuelan sources.

https://www.nytimes.com/2026/01/03/world/americas/cia-venezuela-maduro.html
 
I think the key breakthrough in tracking was him giving a direct face to face interview (in a car) just a day ago (?)... allowing real time tracking since by whatever means or assets.
 
It's not that secret. The Iranians make them now.
 
Whisperstream said:
Yes, the "RQ-180" really exists. Not sure of the actual designation, but Northrop Grumman may have built as many as 25 of them.
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I trust your insights and expertise on this subject, but I’m skeptical whether the RQ-180 is still in service. There haven’t been any sightings in almost 4 years, and it is very, very difficult to hide 25 (!) airframes as big as the RQ-180.

I wouldn’t be surprised if the Chinese found a way to track the RQ-180 and that made it obsolete. This is speculation of course, but still, hiding 25 airframes with a wingspan bigger than a Boeing 737 is near impossible.
 
Hydroman said:
It does and probably with another identifier. I was asked if I wanted to return to NG back in around 2007 for a new program supporting flight test and subsystems, unfortunately my clearance was not active at that time.
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Oh yes , interesting, Where they can base 27 of them if this is the real number , if the size is near of a B-21 ? The classification work very well , nobody have real picture of the RQ-180 or RQ-xxx if this not the real name of the ISR plane.
 
Q-nimbus said:
I trust your insights and expertise on this subject, but I’m skeptical whether the RQ-180 is still in service. There haven’t been any sightings in almost 4 years, and it is very, very difficult to hide 25 (!) airframes as big as the RQ-180.

I wouldn’t be surprised if the Chinese found a way to track the RQ-180 and that made it obsolete. This is speculation of course, but still, hiding 25 airframes with a wingspan bigger than a Boeing 737 is near impossible.
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We see rumors on the web about that , may be it have something to see with the rumor of a Lockheed successor in the work.
 
Q-nimbus said:
I’m skeptical whether the RQ-180 is still in service. There haven’t been any sightings in almost 4 years, and it is very, very difficult to hide 25 (!) airframes as big as the RQ-180.
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It has always been very well hidden. In total there have been a handful of sightings, mainly flying at 60k+, and nothing closer. I don't think it is an unreasonable theory that it is still active but no-one has spotted it.
 
targetpractice said:
It has always been very well hidden. In total there have been a handful of sightings, mainly flying at 60k+, and nothing closer. I don't think it is an unreasonable theory that it is still active but no-one has spotted it.
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I agree with you if there are about 8-12 airframes. Even then it would be very difficult to hide them purely in a practical sense: the RQ-180 Is BIG! Apart from that there is the infrastructure that is difficult to hide, even more so with 25 airframes.

Peter Merlin dug up 9 serial numbers for the RQ-180 for his book, perhaps any new ones have surfaced?
 
Q-nimbus said:
I agree with you if there are about 8-12 airframes. Even then it would be very difficult to hide them purely in a practical sense: the RQ-180 Is BIG! Apart from that there is the infrastructure that is difficult to hide, even more so with 25 airframes.

Peter Merlin dug up 9 serial numbers for the RQ-180 for his book, perhaps any new ones have surfaced?
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What if it is not as large as people assume?
 
The USAF has just been real good about keeping the "RQ-180" from the public and I assume it has been built in probably around 25+ airframes. It also could be a very successful program to date. It is safe to assume the 180 is what won NG the B-21. If you look at the the original B-2 proposal model and NG's modern flying wing lineage, it's basically the B-21 and imagine no cockpit and slightly thinner outboard wings and you have the 180. And all this stems from the early 1980s.
 

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