The US has involved a low-visibility drone RQ-170 Sentinel, which is considered one of the most secretive devices in the arsenal of the US military, in a special operation in Venezuela. It is about supporting a mission related to the attempted capture of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro. The combat use of such a drone is extremely rare.
This is reported by TWZ.
According to available information, at least one RQ-170 could have participated in the task, but the use of two devices is not ruled out. Due to the high level of secrecy of the program, there is almost no confirmed data on Sentinel combat missions.
Indirect evidence of the drone's activity was a video shot by an air spotter in Puerto Rico, which recorded the return of the RQ-170 to Roosevelt Roads Air Base, also known as José Aponte de la Torre Airport. Since the fall of 2025, this facility has been used by the United States as one of the key hubs for expanded military operations in the Caribbean region and adjacent areas.
Another confirmation of the possible use of the drone was the photos released in December by the US Air Force Southern Command. The photos show a serviceman with a chevron depicting the RQ-170. The photos were taken at Davis-Monthan Air Base in Arizona, which is an important center of American operations in Latin America.
The RQ-170 Sentinel has been in service for about 19 years, but most information about it remains classified, including the list of operations in which it was involved. It is known that the drone was created by the Skunk Works division of Lockheed Martin, adopted for service in 2007, and the Pentagon officially recognized its existence only in 2009.
The device has technologies for reducing radar and electromagnetic visibility thanks to a special non-metallic coating. According to open data, the RQ-170 is designed according to the "flying wing" scheme, has a wingspan of about 12 meters, a length of about 4.5 meters and a height of about 1.8 meters.
Earlier, one of these drones was lost in Iran. After that, Iranian specialists reverse-engineered the device and presented their own drone Saegheh-2. It was after this that the RQ-170 partially came out of the shadows, and more of its images appeared in the open access.
Despite this, the key tactical and technical characteristics of the RQ-170 Sentinel continue to remain classified.
Recall that the US used more than 150 aircraft to detain Nicolas Maduro: details of the operation to detain the Venezuelan leader have appeared.
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