The general manager of Lockheed’s most secretive arm, known as “Skunk Works”, refused to comment Tuesday on a mysterious aviation technology spotted recently at a Lockheed testing facility in the Mojave Desert outside of Palmdale, California.
A video began making the rounds on Twitter Sept. 22 exposing an oddly shaped, sleek aircraft being loaded onto a flatbed trailer. (RELATED: Pentagon Confirms Authenticity Of UFO Footage That Shows Flying Object Defying The Laws Of Physics)
The video was re-posted by Ruben Hofs, an aviation enthusiast, who he says stumbled across it on TikTok.
WATCH:
The video: pic.twitter.com/Unhq9lsHwE
— Ruben Hofs (@rubenhofs) September 22, 2021
Hofs, intrigued with the scaffolding in the background of the video, cross-referenced it with Google Maps and figured out that it was likely filmed at Skunk Works’ Helendale Radar Cross Section Facility.
Skunk Works, a military aviation technology division of Lockheed Martin, formally known as the Advanced Development Program, develops many top-secret U.S. military aircraft.
Coincidentally, this morning I stumbled upon a very interesting tiktok video of an unknown shape on a flatbed trailer. The scaffolding in the background got my interest and this appears to be the Helendale Radar Cross Section Facility. Also, this does not seem to resemble the pic.twitter.com/Yo9WcKrDkQ
— Ruben Hofs (@rubenhofs) September 22, 2021
Defense One’s Global Business Editor Marcus Weisgerber hosted a conversation with Jeff Babione, Lockheed Martin’s vice president and general manager of Skunk Works on Tuesday.
Weisgerber asked Babione about the video of the alleged Skunk Works’ aircraft technology.
“Alright, Jeff, we’ve gotten a number of questions about this, and it was about a video last week that surfaced on Twitter of an AFA [Aerial Rocket Artillery]” at “allegedly a Lockheed facility in some shape if you will on the back of a flatbed truck,” Weisgerber said. He then asked, “Are you able to tell us anything about what we saw?”
Babione smiled and replied, “I can’t.”
“Ok,” Weisgerber laughed, “Has your security posture changed?”
Babione chuckled, took a deep breath, and responded, “Uh, we’re, we’re in good shape.”
Another reporter, Steve Trimble for Aviation Week, reported that he showed the video to Air Force Gen. Mark Kelly, who heads up Air Combat Command.
“His immediate reply was that he had no idea what it was,” Trimble wrote on Twitter. “And then he took my laptop and stared at it for about 20 seconds. His expression was (WARNING: my impression) somewhere between confused and impressed.”
