베네수엘라에서 스텔스 ISR 역할의 중요성을 입증한 RQ-170 센티넬

[위종민]

S-300이 배치된 카라카스 상공에서 MQ-9B는 생존이 불가능하지만 RQ-170은 활동 가능하고, 이보다 더 발전된 RQ-180도 있다고 합니다. 

(최고 화질 제공) — 날짜가 알려지지 않은 시점에 괌 앤더슨 공군기지에서 촬영된 RQ-170 센티널 사진. 미 공군
사진 확대
RQ-170 드론, 베네수엘라, 그리고 스텔스 ISR에 대해 알아야 할 것
2026년 1월 7일 | Greg Hadley 작성

기사 공유

합동참모의장인 공군 대장 댄 케인은 베네수엘라 대통령 니콜라스 마두로를 체포하기 위한 ‘절대적 결의 작전(Operation Absolute Resolve)’에 사용된 150대의 항공기를 설명하면서, F-35와 F-22 전투기, B-1 폭격기 등을 포함해 다수의 기종을 실명으로 언급했다.

그러나 그가 구체적으로 언급하지 않은 것은 ‘원격 조종 드론’이었으며, 그중에는 임무 이후 푸에르토리코로 귀환하는 모습이 포착되어 촬영된 비밀스러운 항공기도 포함돼 있었다. 바로 RQ-170 센티널로, 1월 3일 이른 아침 하늘에서 항공기를 촬영한 한 지역 항공 애호가가 영상을 게시한 뒤 인터넷에서 큰 호기심을 불러일으켰다.

공군과 미 남부사령부는 작전상의 이동과 활동에 대해 언급을 거부했기 때문에, RQ-170이 절대적 결의 작전에 참여했는지는 공식적으로 확인되지 않았다. 그러나 Air & Space Forces Magazine과 인터뷰한 전문가들은 이 무인 항공기가 베네수엘라 작전 인근에서 모습을 드러낸 데 전혀 놀라지 않았다고 밝혔는데, 그 이유는 이 항공기가 해당 임무의 핵심 요소인 스텔스 정보·감시·정찰(ISR)에 매우 적합하기 때문이다.

케인의 작전 브리핑에서 그는 이번 작전을 준비하기 위해 ‘수개월’에 걸친 정보 활동이 있었음을 설명하면서, 다양한 자산을 활용해 마두로를 감시하고 “그가 어떻게 이동하는지, 어디에 사는지, 어디를 여행하는지, 무엇을 먹는지, 무엇을 입는지, 그의 애완동물이 무엇인지”를 이해했다고 말했다.

방공망이 잘 구축된 카라카스 도심 상공에서의 항공 정보 수집은 섬세한 접근을 필요로 했다. 공군에서 가장 잘 알려진 ISR 자산인 MQ-9 리퍼는 베네수엘라의 비교적 발전된 방공망, 즉 러시아제 S-300 통합 방공 시스템을 회피할 수 있을 만큼의 스텔스를 갖추지 못했다.

“베네수엘라 수도 상공에 MQ-9를 띄워 놓고 그게 살아남을 거라고 기대할 수는 없습니다.” 2010년대 중반 2년 동안 제732작전단과 그 산하 RQ-170을 지휘했던 퇴역 준장 휴스턴 캔트웰은 이렇게 말했다. 그는 현재 AFA 산하 미첼 항공우주연구소의 선임연구원이다. “하지만 RQ-170은 동일한 하늘 아래에 통합 방공 체계가 존재하는 상황에서도 감시 임무를 수행할 수 있는 잠재력이 훨씬 큽니다.”

단순히 생존하는 것뿐 아니라, RQ-170의 스텔스성은 감시 대상이 무슨 일이 벌어지고 있는지를 인지하기 어렵게 만든다고 베테랑 항공 기자이자 항공우주 분석가인 빌 스위트먼은 지적했다. 그는 “관측당하고 있다는 사실을 사람들이 알아차려 대비책을 세우지 못하도록, 은밀함을 유지하고 싶을 수 있다”고 말했다.

캔트웰은 항공 ISR이 우주 기반 위성 ISR을 보완한다고 설명했다. “적은 위성의 재방문 주기를 바꿀 수 없기 때문에 생활 패턴을 바꾸는 모습을 보이게 됩니다. … 그래서 그들은 우주에서 항상 감시가 이뤄진다는 사실을 알고 능력을 숨기거나 특정 활동을 중단하게 됩니다.” 그는 이어서 “하지만 170 같은 자산이 투입되면 불확실성이 생깁니다. 우주 기반 감시의 공백을 메울 수 있고, 예측 불가능한 방식으로 목표를 재방문할 수 있는 능력을 제공하게 됩니다”라고 말했다.

지표면에 더 가까이 비행하는 항공 자산은 서로 다른 각도를 제공하고 다양한 종류의 신호를 수집할 수 있다고 캔트웰은 덧붙였다. 이는 “전투 피해 평가뿐만 아니라 사전 전장 준비”에도 유용하다는 것이다.

RQ-170에 대해 공개된 몇 안 되는 정보 중 하나로, 공군은 2020년 네바다주 넬리스 공군기지에서 실시된 한 훈련을 설명한 바 있다. 이 훈련에서 센티널 드론은 5년 뒤 베네수엘라를 타격하는 데 사용될 동일한 플랫폼들, 즉 F-22, F-35, 해군의 E/A-18 전자전기들과 함께 비행했다. 주요 목적은 F-35가 적 방공망을 제압해 RQ-170과 같은 플랫폼이 분쟁 공역에 침투할 수 있는지를 시험하는 것이었다.

비밀에 싸여
2000년대 중후반 아프가니스탄 칸다하르 공군기지에서 기자들에 의해 처음 포착된 이후, RQ-170은 항상 미스터리에 싸여 있었으며, 공군은 그 능력과 이동에 대해 극히 제한적인 정보만을 공개해 왔다. RQ-170의 존재를 처음 보도한 기자 중 한 명인 스위트먼은 이 항공기에 ‘칸다하르의 짐승(Beast of Kandahar)’이라는 별명을 붙였고, 이 별명은 2011년 이란이 한 대를 나포한 이후 특히 널리 퍼졌다.

그로부터 수년이 지난 지금, 그는 다른 이들과 함께 이 드론에 대해 몇 가지를 추정할 수 있게 됐다고 말했다. “크기를 보면, 아마 하나, 많아야 두 개의 탑재물을 실을 수 있을 것처럼 보입니다.” 그는 말했다. “가장 많이 목격된 것은 전자광학 장비였지만, 레이더로 교체할 수 있어도 전혀 놀랍지 않을 겁니다. 크기가 아주 크지는 않고, 탑재 공간도 많지 않습니다. 그래서 다중 센서 탑재체를 운용하는 종류는 아니라고 생각합니다. 분명 최신 기종은 아니고 … 항속거리와 고도도 상당히 제한적일 가능성이 큽니다.”

지난 20여 년 동안 RQ-170이 북한과 이란 인근을 비행하는 모습이 포착됐다는 보도가 있었지만, 캔트웰은 이 항공기들이 사람들이 생각하는 것보다 훨씬 더 활발히 운용되고 있다고 말했다.

“RQ-170은 도입 이후 여러 전투사령부에서 지속적으로 사용돼 왔습니다.” 그는 말했다. “다만 그것이 극도로 기밀인 능력이기 때문에, 사람들은 그 이야기를 전혀 듣지 못할 뿐입니다.”

그는 이러한 비밀주의가 정교한 정찰 기술을 노출하지 않기 위한 것이라기보다는, 스텔스성을 유지하기 위한 목적이 더 크다고 설명했다.

“이 항공기의 존재 자체는 ‘우리가 이런 통합 방공 체계를 뚫고 들어갈 수 있어야 한다’는 전제 위에 세워져 있습니다.” 캔트웰은 말했다. “RQ-170의 능력에 대해 우리가 더 많은 정보를 공개할수록, 그것이 수행해야 할 정확한 임무를 해낼 수 있는 능력을 더 크게 위협하게 됩니다. 그래서 매우 타당한 이유로, 우리는 어디서 운용되는지, 언제 운용되는지, 어떤 능력을 갖추고 있는지, 통신 체계가 무엇인지에 대해 극도로 조심스럽게 접근하고 있습니다.”

스위트먼은 이 드론의 실제 ISR 능력이 MQ-9와 유사할 가능성이 크다고 보았지만, 이는 확인되지 않았다고 덧붙였다.

“이건 유지되면서 예비로 보유되는 자산이고, 리퍼와 유사한 정찰 임무를 수행하고 싶지만, 조금 더 분쟁이 심한 지역에 투입하고 싶을 때 사용하는 것이라고 생각합니다.” 그는 말했다.

스텔스 ISR
RQ-170에 대해 아직 확인되지 않았거나 알려지지 않은 부분이 많지만, 완전히 수수께끼인 것은 아니다. 공군은 그 존재를 인정했고 최소 한 장의 사진을 공개했으며, 2011년에는 이란이 중동 상공을 비행하던 한 대를 장악해 전 세계에 전시하기도 했다.

실제로 스위트먼은 공군이 이보다 더 비밀스럽고 첨단인 능력도 보유하고 있다고 지적했다. 그는 2014년에 RQ-180 드론의 존재를 보도했는데, 이는 이후 공군이 잠시 확인했을 뿐, 그 이후로는 아무런 언급도 하지 않고 있다.

이러한 맥락에서 그는 RQ-170이 스텔스 ISR의 정점이라기보다는 공백을 메우는 역할에 가깝다고 말했다. “완전히 비스텔스이고 실제로 격추된 사례도 있는 리퍼와, RQ-180 같은 최고급 능력 사이의 틈새를 채우는 존재입니다.” 그는 말했다.

공군이 절대적 결의 작전을 지원하기 위해 RQ-180이나 다른 미확인 드론을 사용했는지는 영원히 알 수 없을지도 모르지만, 스위트먼은 그 가능성을 낮게 봤다.

“베네수엘라를 놓고 본다면, 아마 ‘그 환경에서 쓰기에는 너무 귀중한 진주’라고 판단했을 겁니다.” 그는 말했다. “여러 공군기지에서 작전을 수행해야 하고, 그 영상에서 봤듯이 노출될 가능성도 있습니다. 저는 그걸 정말 원하지 않았을 거라고 생각합니다. RQ-180은 중국을 위한 것이니까요.”

그럼에도 불구하고, 베네수엘라 임무와 케인이 언급한 정보 활동은 특화된 ISR이 전투에 어떤 가치를 제공하는지를 보여준다고 캔트웰은 말했다.

“스텔스 ISR의 가치는 매우 중요하며, 이는 여러 차례 입증돼 왔습니다.” 그는 말했다. “고가치 작전이 진행될 때마다, 사전 단계와 실제 작전 중 모두에서 더 많은 정보를 확보할수록 성공 가능성은 높아집니다. 이런 스텔스 침투형 ISR 플랫폼은 실제 작전에서 그 진가를 증명합니다. 이는 앞으로도 우리가 이런 유형의 침투형 ISR에 지속적으로 투자해야만 미래에도 그 우위를 유지할 수 있음을 분명히 보여줍니다.”

What to Know About the RQ-170 Drone, Venezuela, Stealthy ISR

(BEST QUALITY AVAILABLE) — A photograph of a RQ-170 Sentinel at Anderson AFB in Guam on an unknown date. USAF

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What to Know About the RQ-170 Drone, Venezuela, and Stealthy ISR

Jan. 7, 2026 | By Greg Hadley

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When Chairman of the Joint Chiefs Air Force Gen. Dan Caine described the 150 aircraft used in Operation Absolute Resolve, the mission to capture Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, he referenced many by name, including the F-35 and F-22 fighters and B-1 bomber.  

Not specified, however, were “remotely piloted drones,” among them a secretive aircraft spotted and photographed returning to Puerto Rico after the mission: the RQ-170 Sentinel, which lit up the Internet with curiosity after a local aviation enthusiast posted video of the aircraft in the early morning sky on Jan. 3. 

Neither the Air Force nor U.S. Southern Command would comment on operational movements and activities, so the RQ-170’s participation in Operation Absolute Resolve remains officially unconfirmed. But experts interviewed by Air & Space Forces Magazine expressed no surprise that the unmanned aircraft had popped up near the Venezuela operation because it is well suited for a key component to the mission: stealthy intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance. 

In Caine’s debrief, he described the “months” of intelligence work that went into preparing for the operation, using a range of assets to monitor Maduro and “understand how he moved, where he lived, where he traveled, what he ate, what he wore, what were his pets.” 

Airborne intelligence in well-defended downtown Caracas required a delicate touch. The Air Force’s best-known ISR asset, the MQ-9 Reaper, lacks the stealth needed to evade Venezuela’s relatively advanced air defenses, which include Russian S300 integrated air defense systems. 

“You cannot park an MQ-9 over the capital of Venezuela and expect that thing to survive,” said retired Brig. Gen. Houston Cantwell, a senior fellow at AFA’s Mitchell Institute for Aerospace Studies, who commanded the 732nd Operations Group and its RQ-170s for two years in the mid-2010s. “But an RQ-170 has a much better potential to be able to surveil when there is an integrated air defense system that is also over the same piece of sky.” 

Besides simply surviving, the RQ-170’s stealth makes it harder for those being surveilled to be aware of what’s happening, noted veteran aviation reporter and aerospace analyst Bill Sweetman. “You might want to remain covert so people don’t take precautions against being observed,” he noted. 

Airborne ISR complements space-based satellite ISR, Cantwell said. “You’ll see the adversary change their patterns of life, because you can’t change the revisit rate of a satellite. … and so they’ll either hide capabilities or stop doing certain kinds of activities, knowing that space is going to be there,” Cantwell said. “But when you throw in something like a 170, now there’s an uncertainty. Now you can fill in some of the gaps that exist with space and allow a capability to revisit a target in an unpredictable manner.” 

Flying closer to the Earth’s surface, air-based assets also provide different angles and can collect different kinds of signals, Cantwell added, making them useful for “battle damage assessment, as well as that battlefield preparation in advance.” 

In one of the few public disclosures about the RQ-170, the Air Force described an exercise at Nellis Air Force Base, Nev., in 2020 during which a Sentinel drone flew alongside many of the same platforms that would be used five years later to strike Venezuela, such as F-22s, F-35s, and Navy E/A-18 electronic warfare jets. The main objective was to test whether the F-35 could suppress enemy air defenses so platforms like the RQ-170 could penetrate contested airspace. 

Shrouded in Secrecy 

First spotted by reporters at Kandahar Airfield in Afghanistan in the mid-to-late 2000s, the RQ-170 has always been shrouded in mystery, with the Air Force releasing precious few details about its capabilities and movements. Sweetman, one of the journalists who first reported on the RQ-170’s existence, dubbed it the “Beast of Kandahar,” a nickname that stuck, particularly after Iran captured one in 2011.

Years later, he and others have been able to surmise a few things about the drone. “From the size of it, it looks as if you’d carry perhaps one, or at most two payloads on it,” Sweetman said. “The one that’s been seen most has been electro-optical, but I wouldn’t be surprised if you could swap that out for a radar. It’s not very big. It doesn’t have a lot of payload volume. So it’s not the sort of thing that would be a multi-sensor payload, I think. It’s certainly not new … and probably quite modest in range and altitude.” 

Over the past two decades or so, RQ-170s have reportedly been spotted flying near North Korea and Iran, but Cantwell said the aircraft are far more active than most people realize. 

“The RQ-170 has been used constantly in multiple combatant commands since its inception,” he said. “You just never hear about it because it is such a highly classified capability.” 

The secrecy is likely less about not exposing exquisite reconnaissance technology and more about preserving its stealthiness, Cantwell said. 

“Its entire existence is predicated on, ‘Hey, we have to be able to penetrate these [integrated air defense systems],” Cantwell said. “And the more information that we put out there about the capabilities of the 170, the more we jeopardize its ability to do exactly what we need it to do. So, for very good reasons, we are very hush hush about where it operates, when it operates, what are its capabilities, what are the communications systems.” 

Sweetman suggested the drone’s actual ISR capabilities are similar to the MQ-9’s, though that is unconfirmed. 

“I think it’s something that’s sustained and held in reserve, and that you use when you want to do a sort of Reaper reconnaissance-type thing, but you want to do it into a somewhat more contested area,” he said. 

Stealthy ISR 

While much remains unconfirmed or unknown about the RQ-170, it is not entirely an enigma. The Air Force has acknowledged its existence and published at least one photo of it, and in 2011 Iran was able to seize control of one flying over the Middle East, putting it on display for the world to see. 

Indeed, Sweetman noted that the service has capabilities that are even more secret and high-tech. In 2014, he reported on the existence of an RQ-180 drone—something the Air Force later briefly confirmed but has since said nothing about. 

In that context, he said, the RQ-170 is not so much the pinnacle of stealthy ISR but rather a gap-filler. “It fills a niche between a Reaper, which is completely non-stealth and Reapers have been shot down, and the sort of high-end capabilities, like the RQ-180,” he said. 

Whether the Air Force used RQ-180s or other unacknowledged drones to support Operation Absolute Resolve may never be known, but Sweetman said he doubts it. 

“You’d probably look at Venezuela and say, probably, ‘pearls too precious to wear’ in that environment, because you’re operating out of a lot of different airfields, and as we saw with that video, you do have a chance of compromise,” he said. “And I think you really wouldn’t want that. I mean, the RQ-180 is for China.” 

Regardless, the Venezuela mission and the intelligence Caine referenced shows what specialized ISR can bring to the fight, Cantwell said. 

“The value of stealthy ISR is so important, and it’s been demonstrated time and time again,” he said. “Whenever you have a high-value operation going on, the more intelligence you can have, both in advance and during the actual operation, the better chance you have of success. So these stealthy, penetrating ISR platforms really prove their worth during these real-world operations. It really shows that in the future, we have to continue to invest in this kind of penetrating ISR if we want to maintain that advantage in the future.” 

[백선호]

우리나라 MUAV, 군단급 무인기도 SAM이 있는 곳에 가서 살아서 돌아올 수는 없겠죠.

[위종민]

무작정 높이 띄울 수도 없으니 앞으론 저런 기체들은 높은 스텔스성의 기체가 필수가 될 것 같네요.