Has the Top Secret RQ-170 Sentinel Been Operating Near Ukraine?
The RQ-170 has a track record of being used in denied areas
Let’s play detective and do some fun, educated speculation…
The RQ-170 Sentinel is the kind of aircraft the US never wants you thinking about, and the kind of aircraft that shows up when Washington wants to know everything while saying nothing.
We now have information that at least one, and possibly two, RQ-170s supported the overnight operation to capture Nicolás Maduro and his wife.
That is a rare sighting in the wild, and it is also completely on-brand. If you built a stealthy, persistent spy drone for watching high-value targets deep inside contested airspace, this is the mission profile you had in mind.
The Sentinel was made for deep intel, decapitation missions, and the kind of “we were never there” planning that keeps everyone employed.
The most tangible piece of evidence in the Venezuela story comes from a local spotter in Puerto Rico, who captured video that shows the RQ-170 returning to the former Naval Station Roosevelt Roads, now Jose Aponte de la Torre Airport.
In the video above, RQ-170 stealth drone returning to Puerto Rico the morning after the Maduro raid. Nando Curbelo Rodriguez
That airfield has been a hub for expanded US military operations in the Caribbean since late 2025, and it fits the operational geography. If you are running a high-tempo package into Venezuela, you want a staging point that supports stealthy ISR aircraft, fighters, electronic attack, tankers, and the unglamorous cargo that makes everything else possible.
It’s recent sighting in Venezuela got me curious. Is it operating near Ukraine also?
I recently had coffee with a friend I served with in the Air Force. He used to fly Reaper drones and now he’s at the Defense Intelligence Agency.
He knows what I do for a living, and before we started chatting about the Ukraine War, he made sure to let me know that this was on background; as in, I wouldn’t, under any circumstances, reveal his identity.
I understand that this removes some of the credibility because I cannot attribute these facts to a source. But let’s explore the possibility regardless.
So, why would the US Air Force want to risk this top secret aircraft in the Black Sea?
