Canonical: https://aliennews.co.il/en/articles/lockheed-martin-vectis-ufo-black-triangle Language: en datePublished: 2026-09-15 dateModified: 2026-09-15 EDGE OF SCIENCE · MILITARY TECHNOLOGY September 15, 2026 **Documented** **Work type:** Research and ideas review # Lockheed Martin unveiled an aircraft that looks like a UFO. It has not flown yet A full scale Vectis model emerged this week: a tailless autonomous combat aircraft scheduled to make its first flight only at the end of 2027. Its silhouette explains the black triangle comparison, but proves nothing about earlier sightings. By Avi Moas and [Orion](https://aliennews.co.il/en/about#orion) Orion is an AI writing and research partner. Avi Moas is the responsible editor. Research, hypotheses and ideas at the boundaries of knowledge. VIDEO AND FULL SOURCE ## Vectis in Lockheed Martin's official film This is Lockheed Martin's promotional film. It shows the full scale model and the programme's intended role, not a test flight. ## At a glance **What is known:** Lockheed Martin displayed a full scale model and announced a planned fleet of five Vectis aircraft. **The claim or interpretation:** The tailless silhouette could resemble a dark triangle from some angles and prompt a mistaken report. **What remains open:** The aircraft has not flown, and no measured performance, customer, price or flight data has been released for comparison with sightings. ![AI illustration of a tailless aircraft inside a hangar](https://aliennews.co.il/vectis-editorial.webp) AI generated editorial illustration for Alien News, not a photograph of Vectis or its displayed model. The accompanying official video presents the documented design. For a year, Lockheed Martin showed Vectis mainly through computer renderings. On September 14 it brought a full scale model onto the floor of the Air and Space Forces Association conference. Official photographs and video reveal a broad, flat body without a tail, its angular lines pulling the air inlets into the outline. A project that had resembled a futuristic sketch suddenly occupied enough space for people to stand beside it. Lockheed says it will build four more aircraft in addition to the prototype already under development, creating a planned fleet of five. First flight is targeted for the end of 2027. The accompanying promotional film presents Lockheed’s goals. For now, a model standing on the ground has been enough to prompt the UFO comparisons. Figures reported by the specialist press put Vectis at roughly 34 feet long with a 38 foot wingspan, or about 10.4 metres long with an 11.6 metre wingspan. It belongs to the category of collaborative combat aircraft, uncrewed aircraft intended to work beside piloted fighters. Lockheed describes a multirole machine for precision strike, intelligence collection, electronic warfare and defensive or offensive counter air missions. Defense News reports that the company selected a commercial Williams International FJ44 4 turbofan producing more than 3,600 pounds of thrust. The detail brings the strange outline back into familiar engineering. This is a body shaped to reduce radar signature around a conventional jet engine and a defined set of military missions. The shape has an engineering purpose: to reduce radar reflections while accommodating the engine and mission equipment. ## Five aircraft, with no customer announced The operational idea goes beyond a drone following a fixed route home. Vectis is meant to work with fighters including the F 35 and receive tasks from a pilot or a command network. Lockheed says a pilot could direct it with a tablet like interface. Autonomy is intended to help with navigation and task management, but the company has not published how decisions involving weapons would be governed or which choices would remain with a human. Its commercial position is also unresolved. The United States Air Force chose Anduril and General Atomics for the first increment of its collaborative combat aircraft programme, not Lockheed Martin. Lockheed is funding Vectis internally while seeking to demonstrate a candidate for later competitions and other customers. No contract or unit price has been announced. ## What someone on the ground will see The UFO comparison does not come from nowhere. Seen from below or at an angle, the broad body and missing tail can resolve into an almost clean triangle. Dark paint, altitude and a brief observation could turn an aircraft familiar to its designers into an object a witness cannot identify. That visual overlap produced headlines suggesting the unveiling had revived accusations that governments concealed aircraft behind UFO reports. The programme's own timeline sets a firm limit. Vectis cannot explain a sighting from the 1980s, the 1990s or last decade because it has not flown. Even after it does, shape alone will not identify it. A useful comparison would need time, location, altitude, speed, sound, lights and radar information. Without those details, black triangle describes a general appearance rather than a particular aircraft. Vectis demonstrates a genuine problem for sighting investigators in the years ahead. A military aircraft may be public in name and photograph while flying a profile most observers have never seen. Another aircraft may remain entirely classified. In either case, an honest witness can describe something they had no practical way to recognise at the time. That is where specifications like these become useful beyond the aviation industry. Shape, dimensions and engine type provide a starting point for comparisons, while the intended missions suggest where and why the aircraft might operate. Reports of unusual acceleration or an absence of sound will need to be compared with data gathered during flight testing, rather than a photograph of the model alone. Often, the missing part of that comparison is the detailed record of the sighting itself. Lockheed is aiming for the end of 2027. The first flight will begin to show the distance between a promotional film and an aircraft: how it turns, what sound it makes and how its silhouette appears from the ground at different angles. Stealth performance, so far a design claim, will also need measured evidence. The model leaves a practical question for anyone watching the sky: how quickly will we learn to recognise shapes we have already seen in photographs? ## Sources and context Lockheed Martin displayed a full scale model and announced four more Vectis aircraft, bringing the planned fleet to five. The company is targeting a first flight by the end of 2027. The aircraft has not flown. No measured stealth performance, unit price, customer, operational payload or flight record has been released for comparison with UFO reports. [Lockheed Martin official announcement and video](https://www.lockheedmartin.com/en-us/news/features/2026/Skunk-Works-Expands-Production-of-Lockheed-Martin-Vectis.html)[Lockheed Martin: Vectis programme](https://sustainability.lockheedmartin.com/en-us/products/vectis.html)[Lockheed Martin Vectis expansion announcement, September 14, 2026](https://www.lockheedmartin.com/en-us/news/features/2026/Skunk-Works-Expands-Production-of-Lockheed-Martin-Vectis.html)[Official Vectis video](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4bb6Mhw6Fgg)[Defense News on five prototypes and the FJ44 4 engine](https://www.defensenews.com/industry/techwatch/2026/09/14/lockheed-to-build-4-more-vectis-drones-2027-first-flight-remains-on-target/)[Air and Space Forces on dimensions, interface and flight plan](https://www.airandspaceforces.com/lockheed-vectis-cca-fly-end-of-2027-more-aircraft/)[Back to all reports](https://aliennews.co.il/en#latest)[עברית](https://aliennews.co.il/articles/lockheed-martin-vectis-ufo-black-triangle) ## Source references * [https://www.lockheedmartin.com/en-us/news/features/2026/Skunk-Works-Expands-Production-of-Lockheed-Martin-Vectis.html](https://www.lockheedmartin.com/en-us/news/features/2026/Skunk-Works-Expands-Production-of-Lockheed-Martin-Vectis.html) * [https://sustainability.lockheedmartin.com/en-us/products/vectis.html](https://sustainability.lockheedmartin.com/en-us/products/vectis.html) * [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4bb6Mhw6Fgg](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4bb6Mhw6Fgg) * [https://www.defensenews.com/industry/techwatch/2026/09/14/lockheed-to-build-4-more-vectis-drones-2027-first-flight-remains-on-target/](https://www.defensenews.com/industry/techwatch/2026/09/14/lockheed-to-build-4-more-vectis-drones-2027-first-flight-remains-on-target/) * [https://www.airandspaceforces.com/lockheed-vectis-cca-fly-end-of-2027-more-aircraft/](https://www.airandspaceforces.com/lockheed-vectis-cca-fly-end-of-2027-more-aircraft/)