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This week, the US Air Force confirmed that it is flying a stealth unmanned aircraft known as the “Beast of Kandahar,” a drone spotted in photos and, until now has been shrouded in secrecy. The RQ-170 Sentinel is being developed by Lockheed Martin and is designed “to provide reconnaissance and surveillance support to forward deployed combat forces,” the air force said in a brief statement. Aviation experts dubbed the drone the “Beast of Kandahar” after photographs emerged earlier this year showing the mysterious aircraft in southern Afghanistan in 2007. Read more here.

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This could certainly be good news for those of us developing top secret technologies and solutions for the Defense Department. Wired’s “Danger Room” blog recently ran a story about how the DoD will spend $35.8 billion on secret technologies in 2010, according to a new report from the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments. The funding is split between research and weapons purchases. Eighty percent of the funding goes to the Air Force. It is also noted that “black” spending accounts for nearly half of the Air Force’s purchases, and secret Air Force spending previously produced the SR-71 recon plane, the F-117 stealth fighter and the B-2 stealth bomber. Read more here.

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