UPDATE UPDATE: X-45A NOT alive and well in Maryland!

2/18/2010 - After reading a comment from "anonymous"

I clicked the Prestly link and got this:

Then I looked to see if the YouTube clip was still there, and got this:

BIZARRE!!!!

2/14/2010 - Thanks to Drop Bear for clearing up the mystery!  See comment section. Happy Valentines Day.  jwc

"Old advanced weapons programs never die, they just go black," says my colleague Steve Trimble of the DEW Line blog.

Trimble is speaking about a video I found today on YouTube. Supposedly the only two flying models of the X-45A UCAS both went to museums after the program ended in 2005, one to the National Air and Space Museum in Washington; the other to the Wright Patterson Air Force base in Ohio.

Posted by Thales group company Prestly Industries, the clip claims to show what is obviously an third X-45A performing a bomb release test at Andrews Air Force Base in Maryland on 8 February 2010.

Not sure how in the world you could do such a test at Andrews, just 10 miles east of the US Capitol, but that's how the clip is labeled..Maybe they meant Edwards?

As further proof that this is a not an old test, compare pictures of the original bomb drop test in April 2004 with the latest test. Definitely a different bird based on the decals on the left side of the nose. Probably other differences that aerophiles can pick up .

Here's the original:

Here's the "new"

Is this for real????