New video offers an even clearer look at the legendary classified stealth drone that made an emergency landing in Greece last month, and it's easily the best we've ever seen.
last month, We report on photos taken in Larissa, Greecewhat to show us, and othersbased on previous sightings and comments from familiar sources, concluded that the U.S. Air Force’s secret and The undisclosed “RQ-180” stealth drone. We don't know the official name of this airframe, so we, like many others, use the label RQ-180 instead.
The plane apparently appeared over Greece during daylight hours and needed to be diverted due to an in-flight emergency – although this may have been a cover story related to the apparently erroneous explanation that it was a B-2 Spirit. As we reported, Larissa No stranger to U.S. drone operations. After news of the video broke, the plane quickly gained the nickname “Lady Larissa.”
In recent days, more video footage from Greece has surfaced online, by aeronaut reader Efthymios Siakarasshowing a view almost directly below the aircraft as it apparently approaches landing.
The new, closer angle allows us to see details of the aircraft that were previously unseen. We have a clear understanding of the aircraft's landing gear configuration (this definitely rules out any issue with this being a landing gear) B-21 Raider), and a closer look at the large transparent aperture of the visible or infrared sensor mounted flush with the belly of the fuselage.
While we've previously been able to speculate on what sensors the RQ-180 might or might not carry, this video gives us the first clear confirmation of what its payload might contain. Most likely, the aircraft was designed with multiple sensor capabilities, including synthetic aperture radar (SAR) and signals intelligence (SIGINT) equipment.
Depending on the mission type, some sensor payloads may be interchangeable for other configurations, or configurations may vary based on specific airframes across the fleet. Nine pre-production examples of the RQ-180 are known to exist, as follows: Recorded by Peter Mellingit is believed that approximately twice as many production airframes were subsequently built. The aircraft may even feature different paint schemes, with some artwork in mission patches and logos hinting at dark airframes and examples of the “White Bat” or “Shikaka” styles.
We were also able to clearly see the aircraft's control surfaces operating. There are fairly conventional flaperons on each wing, although we can also see control surfaces on the rear fuselage. This is similar to the situation on the B-2 Spirit and B-21 Raider. In the case of the B-2, this control surface is often labeled the “beaver tail” – more formally, Gust load alleviation system or GLAS.
The earliest video shot by Siakaras was released on March 11, 2026, which coincides with onlarissa.gr article of It was mentioned that the image posted on March 18 was from “last weekend”. More recent videos, dated within 24 hours of writing this article, show cloudy gray skies instead of the blue skies in other videos.
This supports the idea that Larissa is actually being used as a conventional forward operating location for the RQ-180, as previously suggested by C-17s being flown directly from Edwards Air Force Base, California (near Palmdale Plant 42, where the RQ-180 was likely developed by Northrop Grumman).
These photos are very interesting as they explain the two C-17s flying from Edwards Air Force Base to Larissa Air Force Base in Greece in early March and late February.
Boeing C-17 Globemaster III 2x#AE07F8 97-0046 – REACH 532 (March 9)#AE1196 03-3113 – REACH 432 (February 25)… https://t.co/Jb0vx0zzzG pic.twitter.com/EnKMatkh1w
— Armchair Adml 🇬🇧 (@ArmchairAdml) March 18, 2026
Another C-17 flight from Edwards to Larissa (stopover) arrived on the morning of April 6 and subsequently departed (REACH 1844).
Larissa does have two interesting hangars located away from the rest of the built-up area of the airport, probably built to support covert drone operations. It is worth noting that the US MQ-9 Reaper aircraft stationed there are reported to operate from the hangar in the north of the airport (also visible on satellite images), not these two. According to historical satellite imagery, the hangar was built within the past few years.
It was previously believed that the most likely RQ-180 forward base in Europe was RAF Akrotiri in Cyprus or Sigonella Naval Air Station, Sicily. Akrotiri is particularly suited to this use case, being owned and operated by the Five Eyes alliance, existing within sovereign territory used almost exclusively for military purposes and bordering the high seas on three sides.
However, Larissa may offer more flexibility to the RQ-180 (And, it should be noted that the RQ-170) operations and may have been developed with missions in the Black Sea or even Ukrainian airspace in mind. While further inland than the other two options, operating primarily at night can mitigate at least some degree of exposure risk. Additionally, Greece has seen tight restrictions on aircraft operating at military installations outside of official events, causing foreign tourists to feel alienated Arrested and charged multiple times.
A Northrop Grumman RQ-180 aircraft landed at Larissa Air Base in Greece yesterday. It was the first time the public heard 180 degrees. 😎🤙 pic.twitter.com/iYZWHQaSai
— Thenewarea51 (@thenewarea51) March 19, 2026
The RQ-180 is thought to have been in use on the front lines for quite some time, and it was just a coincidence that at some point it started making more public appearances. Industry commentators have been hinting for years that the aircraft's official debut might be imminent, but nothing has been announced yet.
on the contrary, B-21 Raider service date coming soon U.S. authorities may have believed this provided a better way to keep the RQ-180's activities secret, as the planforms of the two aircraft were similar, more so than the B-2, which had a serrated trailing edge introduced late in development to improve low-altitude performance.
If the RQ-180 does continue to receive more public attention, the remaining question is, what, if anything, might the USAF have in place to take the RQ-180's capabilities to the next level?
