This Is The US Army's Newest Spy-Plane

The ARTEMIS II Leidos Special Mission Aircraft ribbon-cutting ceremony, Dec. 8, 2022. Leidos 

Defense One: Inside the Army’s Newest Spy Plane  

Already watching over Ukraine, Leidos’ ARTEMIS is part of the service’s growing fleet of contractor-owned intelligence aircraft. 

From a distance, the all-white business jet parked neatly in a hangar underneath a giant American flag looks a lot like the other sleek, luxurious private planes arriving and departing from this Virginia airport. But inside, this plane is far more working class. 

The cabin, full of server racks, looks more like an IT closet than an executive aircraft. The seats are cloth and two computer consoles are connected to a dozen or so antennas protruding from the plane’s belly. 

To the U.S. Army, this plane—or something like it—is a ticket to the future of warfare, built to monitor the complex communications of an adversary nation-state from standoff distance, rather than the simpler chatter of insurgents right below.  

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WNU Editor: Something tells me this new spy plane is going to be very busy .... ARTEMIS Challenger Joins Ukraine Surveillance Effort (AINOnline).

Was The Mysterious U.S. Spy Plane Known As The "Aurora" Spotted Off The Coast Of England?

Could the aircraft seen over Britain by the top secret US spy plane the Aurora?Credit: Tin Samedov 

The SUN: Mystery as ‘top secret hypersonic 5,000mph US spy plane’ spotted flanked by two fighter jets flying near Britain 

FLYING high over the North Sea, a mysterious "black triangle" shape flanked by two US fighter jets was spotted by an oil rig worker. 

The sighting came as there was a flurry of reports of unusual aircraft, unexplained sonic booms, ear-splitting high-pitched shrieks and fast-moving radar dots around Britain. 

For years during the late 80s and early 90s the British Isles seems to have been menaced by these shapes and sounds, with the reports often being branded as UFOs.  

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Update: Mysterious 5,000mph US ‘black project’ spy plane 'spotted' whizzing over Britain (Express)  

WNU Editor: These sightings have been spotted for years .... Revealed after 32 years: The 'most spectacular UFO photo ever captured' - or the first glimpse of America's fabled top-secret Aurora spy plane program? (Daily Mail). More on the Aurora here .... Meet the SR-91 Aurora: The Mach 6 Spy Plane That Could Change Everything (19FortyFive).

Does The SR-91 Aurora Mach 5 Hypersonic Spy Plane Exist?

SR-91 Aurora, artist rendition. Image Credit: Creative Commons. 

19Forty-Five: SR-91 Aurora: Mach 5 Hypersonic Spy Plane Or Myth? 

In the 1980s an idea was conceived by military planners to develop a hypersonic spy plane that could reach Mach 5+, making it truly the fastest manned aircraft ever to fly. While there have been reported sightings of the prototypes, the SR-91 Aurora, if it even existed, likely never made it much best the concept stage. 

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WNU Editor: It is very hard to keep a secret in today's world. If the SR-91 Aurora spy plane exists, it would have been exposed a long time ago. As for the concept of such a spy plane. I have to give credit where credit is due. Those planners in the 1980s were very imaginative on what to develop and build.

Private Pilot Takes Amazing Images Over America's Premier Spy Plane Base

Gabriel Zeifman

Warzone/The Drive: Private Pilot Flew Over America's Premier Spy Plane Base And Snapped These Images

The images show Global Hawks and U-2 spy planes scattered around the ramp, and an interesting upgrade that may point to a new shadowy resident.

Private pilot Gabriel Zeifman is up to his usual aviation adventures once again, which sometimes includes traversing unusual airspace that is often off-limits to commercial and private air traffic. He has buzzed around the perimeter of Area 51 and through restricted ranges throughout the region, all legally with air traffic control's permission. Now Zeifman took his little Cessna over the top of Beale Air Force Base in Northern California, home of the U-2 Dragon Lady and RQ-4 Global Hawk spy planes, along with the U-2 community's black T-38 Talon trainers, and a squadron of KC-135R tankers, and snapped some photos along the way. The images are fascinating as always, but one area, in particular, is especially intriguing.

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Update: Photos Snapped of US Spy Plane Base Suggest Reconfiguration for New RQ-180 Drone (Sputnik).

WNU Editor: This pilot must have an incredible camera to take these pictures.

Before The SR-71 Blackbird Spy Plane There Was The A-12 Oxcart

Wikimedia Commons

Sebastien Roblin, National Interest: CIA's Super-Secret A-12 Spy Plane Might Have Stopped a War with North Korea

And much more.

On October 30, 1967, a CIA spy-plane soared eighty-four thousand feet over Hanoi in northern Vietnam, traveling faster than a rifle bullet at over three times the speed of sound. A high-resolution camera in the angular black jet’s belly recorded over a mile of film footage of the terrain below—including the over 190 Soviet-built S-75 surface-to-air missiles sites.

The aircraft was an A-12 “Oxcart,” a smaller, faster single-seat precursor variant of the Air Force’s legendary SR-71 Blackbird spy plane.

The jet’s driver, Dennis Sullivan had earlier flown one hundred combat missions in an F-80 Starfighter over Korea for the U.S. Air Force. But Sullivan was technically no longer a military pilot—he had been “sheep-dipped,” temporarily decommissioned to fly the hi-tech jet on behalf of the CIA. He now sat in the cramped cockpit in a refrigerated space suit, as the friction generated by his plane’s Mach 3 speeds heated the cockpit to over five hundred degrees Fahrenheit.

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WNU Editor: Oxcart????

U.S. Spy Planes And US Navy P-8A Anti-Submaine Planes Spotted Near Syria

12 APR: US Navy P-8A 168439 PS122 departed Sigonella at 0450z - Eastern Mediterranean mission pic.twitter.com/Z0pxWrsEmQ

— Mil Radar (@MIL_Radar) April 12, 2018

Financial Express/IANS: US military aircraft hover over Russian bases in Syria

Seven US military aircraft have conducted reconnaissance missions near the coast of Syria, where Russia's Hmeymim airbase and Tartus naval base are located, Moscow's military flight monitoring centre tweeted on Friday.

Seven US military aircraft have conducted reconnaissance missions near the coast of Syria, where Russia’s Hmeymim airbase and Tartus naval base are located, Moscow’s military flight monitoring centre tweeted on Friday.

Six US Navy P-8A Poseidon patrol aircraft departed from an airbase on the Italian island of Sicilia, and an EP-3E Aries II reconnaissance aircraft flew from the base on the Greek island of Crete, Xinhua news agency reported.

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WNU Editor: These articles focus on the US Navy' search for the Russian Navy off the coast of Syria, but I would not be surprised if spy planes and spy satellites are also being used extensively over Syria itself.

More News On Reports Of A Massive Increase In Spy Plane Activity Near Syria

US Navy ramps up surveillance off the Syrian coast -- Janes 360
7 US navy reconnaissance aircraft spotted near Russian bases in Syria -- China.org.cn
U.S. Spy Planes Land on Crete -- Novinite
U.S. navy reconnaissance aircrafts spotted over Russian bases in Syria -- Eurasia Daily
Unverified Map Claims US Spy Planes Spotted Near Russian Facilities in Syria -- Sputnik
Edging Closer: US Spy Planes Reportedly Land in Crete Amid Tensions in Syria -- Sputnik

Not All Spyplanes Look Like The SR-71 Or U-2

The H03 Spyplane from Northrop Grumman. Shorealonefilms.com

Joseph Trevithick and Tyler Rogoway, The Warzone/The Drive: Mysterious Northrop Grumman Spy Plane Emerges At The Mojave Air and Space Port

Called the H03, the design is reminiscent of a number of other high-flying, glider-like intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance aircraft.

We at The War Zone have been keeping a close eye on a small but potentially growing niche market for manned high-altitude intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance aircraft, some of which are derived from powered glider-type planes. Now a new entrant into this field, so far known only as the H03, from Northrop Grumman has emerged outside the company’s hangar at the Mojave Air and Space Port in California.

Our good friend and long-time Southern California aerospace photojournalist Matt Hartman, proprietor of Shorealonefilms.com, captured these images of the overall gray aircraft. The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) only approved the aircraft’s civil registration, N326JG, in August 2017, but we have no way of telling how long Northrop Grumman has been working on the project.

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WNU Editor: Small .... and probably cheap to maintain.

This CIA-Linked Spy Plane Is Looking For Ships That Are Busting North Korean Sanctions

横田基地に怪しいヤツ着陸！
やっと撮れた！！！

来た時より大分変わりましたね！

Bombardier Dash8-300 N599XQ pic.twitter.com/xXXOdAhvKC

— みずき46 (@mizuki8898) 25 March 2018

Warzone/The Drive: Shadowy CIA-Linked Spy Plane May Be Scouring The Sea For North Korean Sanction Busting

Since February 2018, the essentially unmarked surveillance aircraft has been flying orbits over the East China Sea between North Korea and China.

For weeks now, plane spotters on the ground and those using online flight tracking software have watched the curious activities of a highly modified and effectively unmarked de Havilland Canada Dash-8 surveillance plane as it flies missions from U.S. Air Force bases in Japan. It’s not clear who is operating the aircraft or what it’s doing, but it is reportedly tied to the CIA, and from the plane’s routes and overall configuration, it may be involved in enforcing sanctions against North Korea over its nuclear weapons and missile programs.

The aircraft, which carries the U.S. civil registration code N599XQ, but it otherwise overall white in color, first began appearing in Japan at Yokota Air Base outside of Tokyo in February 2018. It has since flown out of Kadena Air Base further south on the island of Okinawa, as well, primarily into the East China Sea. Units assigned to Pacific Air Forces, or PACAF, the Air Force’s top command for operations in the Pacific theater, manage operations at both of the bases.

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WNU editor: The technology behind these planes must be very impressive .... and they have been busy .... UN blacklists dozens of ships and companies for North Korean smuggling operations (Business Insider/Reuters)

US Special Operations Command Is Now Using These New Spy Planes To Hunt Terrorists In Libya

One of Dynamic Aviation's Dash-8s, registration N8300S, while flying as part of the US Army's Desert Owl program in 2015. Bill Word

The Warzone/The Drive: One of US Special Operations Command's Newest Spy Planes Is Hunting Terrorists In Libya

A pair of de Havilland Dash-8-based aircraft appear to have taken over directly from two older, shadowy surveillance aircraft.

With two other mysterious spy planes now retired, U.S. Special Operations Command appears to have fully transitioned to using newer, modified de Havilland Canada Dash-8s for certain discreet persistent surveillance missions. At least one of these planes is already becoming a regular feature over Libya, where American special operators continue a secretive hunt for terrorists, including individuals with links to the infamous Benghazi attack.

According to the U.S. military’s latest budget request for the 2019 fiscal year, which it released in February 2018, U.S. Special Operations Command (SOCOM) operates at least two of the twin engine Dash-8s as part of a fleet of aircraft known as SOCOM Tactical Airborne Multi-Sensor Platforms, or STAMP. That program also oversees at least three smaller twin engine Beachcraft King Air B300s.

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WNU Editor: No announcement from SOCOM on who they are "hunting" in Libya with these spy planes.

The U.S. Air Force Wants A New Spy Plane

Lockheed Martin

RCD: Industry Heavyweights Make Final Push for New Air Force Spy Plane

For the better part of the past decade, U.S. Air Force officials have gone back and forth on how to modernize a fleet of surveillance planes so old that the original airframes — Boeing 707 airliners — have been out of production since 1979.

The 17 planes now in service, known as the E-8C joint surveillance target attack radar systems (JSTARS), have been workhorses around the world and average 48 years in age. It is not uncommon for a portion of the fleet to get grounded for maintenance issues, increasing the pressure on the Air Force to replace them with more reliable airplanes.

“These are critical aircraft,” Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. David Goldfein said in congressional testimony earlier this year.

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WNU Editor: You know that you will need to upgrade your fleet when the 17 planes that the Air Force are using right now are on average 48 years old.

Inside A U.S. Spy Plane

WNU Editor: The video as posed two years ago .... but it is still cool to watch.

Unusual Spy Plane Appears At A U.S. Special Ops Exercise

Warzone/The Drive: Unusual High-Altitude Spy Plane Appears at Special Operations Exercise

German company Grob only ever made five G 520s and one showed up for drills in Indiana.

The U.S. military, including the U.S. Coast Guard, has a long history of operating high-flying surveillance aircraft based on or otherwise derived from powered gliders. Recent pictures show U.S. special operators are at least training with one particularly rare type, the Grob G 520.

On July 12, 2017, Indiana’s North Vernon Municipal Airport posted a series of pictures on its official Facebook page of U.S. Air Force and Army special operations aircraft on their way to an exercise. The photographs showed what appeared to be C-130H Hercules and an MH-47G Chinook, as well as what looked like stock photos of a CV-22B Osprey, an AH-6M Little Bird, and multiple MH-60M Black Hawks. There was also a picture of an odd looking white-and-gray aircraft and someone had blacked out its only apparent marking.

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WNU Editor: Its wingspan is huge.

These Are The U.S. Spy And Surveillance Planes Watching North Korea

A U-2S takes off from Osan Air Base in 2009.

The Drive: This Is How America Keeps Watch Over North Korea From The Sky

After more than a decade of nuclear and missile tests, the Pentagon has only stepped up its surveillance of the isolated country.

On n April 12, 2017, one of the U.S. Air Force’s WC-135 Constant Phoenix aircraft, which scoops up air to search for tell-tale signs of nuclear activity, landed at Kadena Air Base on the Japanese island of Okinawa. The plane’s arrival wasn’t surprising given widespread concern North Korea was prepping a sixth nuclear test coupled with reports of a potential American military response.

"U.S. intelligence is always on alert for a possible North Korean weapons test," an unnamed individual from the U.S. Intelligence Community told VOA on April 13, 2017. North Korean leader "Kim Jong Un wants his country to be validated as a nuclear power and a test would further that goal." This new nuclear test could coincide with the annual Day of the Sun, a massive, annual national holiday commemorating the birth of the country’s founder and Kim Jong Un’s grandfather, Kim Il Sung. It would be North Korea’s sixth reported detonation of a nuclear weapon.

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WNU Editor: That is a lot of planes watching North Korea .... and this is the first time that I am learning of the Saturn Arch aircraft and the RC-12X.

A Look At What The U.S. Army's New Spy Plane Can Do

One of the MC-12S EMARSS prototypes (U.S. Army photo)

Kris Osborn, National Interest: Everything We Know About the U.S. Army's New Super Spy Plane

The EMARSS aircraft is configured to integrate a range of sensor packages such as Electro-Optical/Infrared cameras, full-motion video cameras and an imaging sensor technology known as Wide Area Surveillance System able to identify and produce images spanning over a given area of terrain, Army acquisition officials explained.

EMARSS Follow-On Operational Test and Evaluation is coming up this month at Fort Huachuca, Ariz., Smith said.

The Army is also integrating EMARSS with several cutting-edge technologies, to include a Northrop Grumman-built Vehicle and Dismounted Exploitation Radar (VADER) radar imaging technology. VADER uses Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) and Ground Moving Target Indicator (GMTI).

The Army is testing a next-generation surveillance plane engineered to identify enemy targets quickly from the air with a high-tech datalink to connect on-board sensors and computers with a multi-source ground-based intelligence system.

The Army’s Enhanced Medium Altitude Reconnaissance and Surveillance System (EMARSS) is a fixed-wing surveillance plane with cameras, software, antennas, intelligence databases and electronic equipment.

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WNU Editor: I am sure there is one flying over Mosul and/or Raqqa right now.

Has The Latest Chinese Spy Scandal Just Grounded America’s Most Important Spy Planes?

P-8 aircraft is a modified Boeing 737 jet equipped with advanced sensors and radar designed to gather intelligence and hunt down submarines (AFP Photo/Mohd Fyrol)

Dan De Luce/Elias Groll.Paul McLeary, Foriegn Policy: China May Be the Big Winner in the Pentagon’s Newest Spying Scandal

The secrets a U.S. Navy officer is suspected of slipping to China could ground America’s most important spy planes just when Washington needs them most.

The U.S. naval officer at the center of a burgeoning spy scandal may not have simply betrayed his country: He may have also helped China compromise Washington’s most-sophisticated tool for tracking Beijing’s submarines, ships, and planes.

The surveillance aircraft potentially exposed in the espionage case are America’s high-tech “eyes in the sky” in the western Pacific, the EP-3E Aries II and P-8A Poseidon, which are equipped with sensors and radar that allow them to scoop up the electronic communications of Chinese forces and monitor their movements.

The Aries, which has undergone significant upgrades in recent years, delivers “near real-time” signals intelligence and full motion video, according to the Navy. The aircraft’s sensors and dish antennas — their range is classified — can pick up distant electronic communications, allowing the U.S. military to pick up on any possible threats and eavesdrop on foreign militaries.

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Previous Post: U.S. Navy Officer Lt. Cmdr. Edward Lin Accused of Passing Secrets To China (Updated)

WNU Editor: Let's see now .... Lt. Cmdr. Edward Lin was in his post for two years .... had access to everything .... and was passing intel overseas. Hmmm .... yup .... common sense tells me that America's most important spy planes have been compromised.

Are Secret U.S. Spy Planes Flying Over The Pacific?

Joseph Trevithick, National Interest: Exposed: Are Secret U.S. Spy Planes Flying Over the Pacific?

The Pentagon is unflinchingly tight-lipped about any new, high tech planes it has in the works. But every so often, a bit of information manages to squeak out into the public domain.

In 2013, the U.S. Air Force sent a secret spy plane out over the Pacific region. The unknown aircraft – possibly a drone – flew “national collection missions” – a euphemism for strategic intelligence against states like North Korea or China.

It was one of five different types of aircraft flying these missions. The Pentagon’s top headquarters asked the flying branch to use its U-2 Dragon Ladies and RC-135V/W Rivet Joints to take high resolution pictures and scoop up radio chatter, according to an official history of the Air Force’s Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance Agency – a.k.a. AFISRA – for that year.

WNU Editor: The Pentagon does have a huge "black budget" .... A Look At The Pentagon’s $59 Billion ‘Black Budget’ .... so yes .... anything is possible.

A New U-2 Spy Plane Is In The Works

U.S. Air Force

Flight Global: Lockheed Skunk Works designing next-gen U-2 spy plane

Lockheed Martin Skunk Works is designing a next-generation high-altitude, long-endurance (HALE) surveillance airplane, known internally as RQ-X or UQ-2, as an optionally-manned successor to the U-2 and Northrop Grumman RQ-4 Global Hawk.

U-2 programme officials told reporters at the Skunk Works headquarters in Palmdale, California, that its engineers have been mulling designs for stealthy HALE platform that would combine the best of the U-2 and its unmanned rival, the Global Hawk.

WNU Editor: This is interesting .... U-2 Hits 60; A Glimpse of Where It Was Built (Breaking Defense).

More News On Reports That Lockheed Martin's "Skunk Works" Is Developing A New U-2 Spy Plane

Lockheed Martin developing U-2 spy plane successor, report says -- FOX News
A successor to the storied U-2 spy plane is reportedly in development -- Business Insider
Lockheed Embarks on New Surveillance Aircraft R&D Program -- ExecutiveBiz
Lockheed Skunkworks eyes a new U-2 -- Popular Science
Will Lockheed Build A Stealthy U-2 Successor? -- Colin Clark, Breaking Defense

Update: A comparison between the U-2 Spy plane and the Global Hawk .... U-2 spy plane's mission: fend off rival Global Hawk (L.A. Times).

You Can Track Russian Spy Planes On The Internet

The Aviationist: A new Russian spyplane skirted the airspace of eastern Ukraine today

A new Russian Air Force Tu-214R could be tracked as it flew close to the border with Ukraine.

Social media are going frenzy after a Russian Air Force Tu-214R was spotted and tracked on the Internet, by means of its ADS-B transponder signals detected by Flightradar24 collecting stations, as it flew from Kazan to Crimea and back, closely following the border between Russia and Ukraine on Jun. 18.

Built by the Kazan Aircraft Production Association’s (KAPO) and flown from the company’s airfield, the Tu-214R registered RA-64514, serial number 42305014, is the second of the two examples of this kind of aircraft built under contract with Russia’s Ministry of Defense.

WNU Editor: I have always been a big fan of Flightradar24.com. The Aviationist is also correct that if you want to know where Putin is, you can use Flightradar24.com to track his "doomsday" plane .... Putin’s Doomsday Plane circling near Finland for third day in a row as he visits his spiritual mentor (The Aviationist). On a side note, the Aviationist made the remark that Putin has a "spiritual mentor" .... as to who is that spiritual mentor .... Zero Hedge covers that in this post.

A Look At America's Next Spy-Plane The SR-72

The SR-72 will travel at six times the speed of sound—the fastest military jet ever made—and fly as high as 80,000 feet.

Popular Science: Inside America's Next Spyplane

A secret, hypersonic replacement for the legendary SR-71 promises to transform military aviation.

Born in the spy-vs.-spy cauldron of the Cold War, the iconic SR-71 “Blackbird” remains the fastest air-breathing military aircraft the world has known. It flew so high and so fast that enemy defenses were powerless to intercept it. Eventually, satellite technology and advanced radar eroded its advantage. In 1998, the U.S. Air Force retired it. Now, with regional threats growing and portable surface-to-air missiles evolving, engineers have once again set out to build the fastest military jet on the planet.

This time, it will take the form of a 4,000-mile-per-hour reconnaissance drone with strike capability. Known as the SR-72, the aircraft will evade assault, take spy photos, and attack targets at speeds of up to Mach 6. That’s twice as fast as its predecessor.

WNU Editor: I suspect that it is still on the drawing boards .... and will be there until they are able to overcome many of its engineering obstacles. But it is still fun to dream.

Here Are 19 Different Spy Planes

Lockheed U-2. Photo: U.S. Air Force

The 19 Most Badass Spy Planes -- Gizmodo

There is little in the world that can match the simultaneous awesomeness and mystery of a spy plane. These are the paragon of modern innovation, yet largely pass invisible above us. They decide battles and wars, yet only a few lucky soldiers get to see them. Blah blah blah words. Let's look at some incredible machinery.

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My Comment: A cool list .... and with pictures. Check it out.