US Army HADES (Drone Launching Planes)
HADES — High Accuracy Detection and Exploitation System — is the U.S. Army's program-of-record for a new fleet of intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) jets built on the Bombardier Global 6500 airframe. It is a real, publicly announced, publicly contracted program. That matters here for one reason: the aircraft at the center of this investigation's flight thread, N1098L, is a Global 6500, and public defense-trade reporting has separately described Army interest in launching small drones from that same airframe.
Everything downstream of those two facts is contested. This page separates what is documented about the program from what is only alleged about September 10, 2025.
What HADES is
HADES is intended to replace and consolidate the Army's earlier prototype ISR jets — ARTEMIS, ARES and ATHENA — with a single higher, faster, longer-legged platform. Per the case notes, the program is run out of Biggs Army Airfield (KBIF) at Fort Bliss, El Paso, Texas, and is associated with Bradley Hansell, described in reporting as Under Secretary of War for Intelligence. Contractors named across the program's reporting include Bombardier (airframe), Sierra Nevada Corporation (mission conversion), Leidos and SAIC.
The mission set for this class of aircraft is described on the ISR Operations page: signals intelligence (SIGINT), imagery intelligence (IMINT), synthetic aperture radar (SAR), communications relay, and — the contested item — drone deployment and recovery.
Two dated milestones anchor the program, both preserved as screenshots of The Defense Post in the Aircraft Articles photo cluster:
| Date | Reported | Source |
|---|---|---|
| November 27, 2024 | "Bombardier has delivered the first Global 6500 aircraft" to the US Army HADES program | The Defense Post, Christine Casimiro |
| September 10, 2025 | "SNC Accepts Second Bombardier Jet for US Army HADES Spy Plane Program" — Sierra Nevada Corporation receives airframe #2 for conversion | The Defense Post, Rojoef Manuel |
The second date is the day of the shooting. That is a coincidence of publishing schedules unless something connects them, and nothing on this site connects them. It is recorded because it is the kind of detail that gets discovered later and treated as concealed.
The first HADES prototype, tail N808LP, was photographed at the Bombardier Defense facility in Wichita, Kansas on November 25, 2024. Its FAA registration shows a 2023 BD-700-1A10, serial 60116, in the Experimental / Normal airworthiness class — a detail that becomes important in the rebuttal section below, because N1098L is serial 60098 in the standard class.
The air-launched drone reporting — and its deletion
On January 9, 2025, The War Zone (TWZ) published an article by Thomas Newdick headlined "Army Wants To Test Air-Launched Drones From A Global Express Business Jet." Its standfirst read: "The planned trials tally with previous comments about launching the drones from the new Global 6500-based HADES surveillance jet."
That is the origin of the phrase "drone launching planes" in this investigation. It is not a citizen-investigator invention — it is defense-trade reporting on a stated Army intention.
After the story began circulating in connection with N1098L and September 10, 2025, the URL
twz.com/air/army-wants-to-test-air-launched-drones-from-a-global-express-business-jet
stopped resolving. The Cover Up photo cluster preserves
both states: a full-page capture of the live article, and a full-page capture of the 404 that
replaced it. Thirteen before/after slides
circulating on X pair the two side by side under the banner "Cover Up in Charlie Kirk."
The site does not adopt the slides' wording. Those slides assert the removal is proof. The careful reading is narrower and is the one used here: the article existed, it now returns a 404, and no explanation for the change has been published. Ordinary explanations — a URL change, a CMS migration, an editorial retraction — have not been ruled out. What defeats the strongest version of the suppression claim is that a second outlet, Aeronaut Media, independently reported the same Army drone-launch tests, and that capture is still on this site. The capability reporting survived the deletion.
Where N1098L enters
N1098L is a Bombardier Global 6500 (ICAO hex A0299E, serial 60098, previously registered N911PV), operated by LASAI Aviation II LLC, a contractor brought under Leidos in 2021. On September 10, 2025 it flew under callsign AXLE10 (rendered AXEL10 in some captures), departing Biggs Army Airfield at roughly 07:48 MDT.
Two low-altitude passes near Orem and Utah Lake are the entire basis of the Utah claim. The numbers investigators publish do not agree with each other, and the site presents that disagreement rather than picking a winner:
| Account | First pass | Second pass |
|---|---|---|
| "Training-quote" version | ~600 ft AGL, 11:47 AM MDT, ~118 kt | ~335 ft AGL, 12:24 PM MDT, ~129 kt |
| John Cullen / master-file version | ~203 ft, ~116 kt, ~9:16 AM MT — "drone drop-off" | ~203 ft, ~113–118 kt, ~12:48 PM MT — "pick-up," 20–25 min after the shot |
| @hurtfeelingzday version | departed FCA 11:27 MT, low loop over Orem | ~300 ft, ~150 kt, looped Orem "30 seconds after the shot" |
Charlie Kirk was shot at 12:23 PM MDT. The full flight-data breakdown lives on N1098L Spy Plane and N1098L HADES Over UVU; the minute-level dispute is on The HADES Aircraft's Low Passes and N1098L Low-Pass Timing.
A separate thread comes from Google Trends: searches for the exact string "hades n1098l" appear in District of Columbia trend data on July 27 and August 5, 2025 — weeks before the shooting. Trends data is an inference about search volume, not a subpoenaed query log, and it identifies no person. It is recorded on Searches By Date.
The rebuttal case
This section is not a formality. The strongest arguments against the HADES drone theory are technical, and several of them are hard to answer.
The airframe was not built out for it. @tjphager, the most-cited skeptic in this thread, argues N1098L carried interior equipment only, with no visible exterior modifications — no radomes, antennas or sensor blisters matching the full HADES ME-11B contracted specification that a real drone-launch or collection platform would show. On this reading the aircraft is a trainer or survey configuration, not a mission jet.
Renderings are being mistaken for the aircraft. The comparison image above makes the point directly: the sleek grey jet circulating in the slide decks is an artist's rendering of a future fully-equipped HADES, not a photograph of N1098L, which is plain and white.
The "stall speed" framing is aerodynamically wrong. A Global 6500's stall speed at approach weights is comfortably above 116 knots. An aircraft actually at its stall speed is not making a controlled photographic pass — it is falling.
The timing cannot work if the flight was reactive. No fixed-wing aircraft can receive news of a shooting, descend from altitude, set up an approach and execute a 335-foot pass within thirty seconds. A pre-planned profile that happens to bracket an event is the null hypothesis; a scheduled pair of passes at 11:47 and 12:24 is a training sortie, and the event landed between them.
It was broadcasting. The aircraft flew with its transponder on, visible to every hobbyist tracker in the country. That is not how a covert operation is conducted.
And the geography is ordinary. Utah Lake sits beneath normal arrival and training corridors for Provo and Salt Lake. "Within two miles of UVU" describes a two-mile radius drawn around a busy campus in a busy valley.
An October 1, 2025 defense-oriented analysis went further, arguing the Utah airspace presence was routine HADES training and that linking the jet to the assassination was an information operation without credible evidence.
What is actually established
- HADES is a real, publicly announced U.S. Army ISR program on the Global 6500 airframe. Documented.
- The Army has publicly stated an interest in testing air-launched drones from that airframe. Documented, by two outlets.
- N1098L is a Global 6500 operated by a Leidos-affiliated contractor and did fly two low passes near Orem on September 10, 2025. Documented in ADS-B data.
- N1098L was configured to launch drones. Not established — and actively disputed on airframe-configuration grounds.
- N1098L launched, recovered or supported anything connected to the shooting. Not established. No tasking record, no manifest, no imagery.
Capability is not proof of a September 10 release. What capability establishes is that records may exist — flight tasking orders, mission logs, sensor product, and Fort Bliss ramp and handling logs — and that those records have not been produced.
Open questions
- What was N1098L's tasking order for September 10, 2025, and who issued it?
- Was the aircraft carrying mission equipment on that date, or was it in a training or ferry configuration?
- Why did The War Zone article stop resolving, and was the removal editorial or requested?
- Who searched "hades n1098l" from the District of Columbia on July 27 and August 5, 2025?
- Do Biggs Army Airfield ramp and handling logs for September 9–11, 2025 exist, and have they been preserved?
- Has any component of the HADES program been asked, on the record, whether N1098L's Utah passes were scheduled?
Laws (Charlie Kirk)
HADES tasking orders, N1098L mission logs and sensor product, Biggs Army Airfield ramp records, and the contracting trail between LASAI Aviation II, Leidos and Sierra Nevada are exactly the kind of records that the Charlie Kirk Investigation Laws are designed to force into the open. Without compelled disclosure, this thread stays permanently stuck where it is now: a documented program, a documented aircraft, and no documented tasking.
HADES Image Evidence
Every image below is filed under Photos. Click any thumbnail for the full picture and its write-up.
Full clusters: Aircraft Articles · Cover Up · Cover Versions · Nwq (LASAI / Leidos / N808LP) · Drop Off · Drones, CIA and Israel slides · Searches By Date · All aircraft photos
Citizen Investigator Claims on X
(Aircraft OSINT and attributed claims — not findings that any pilot, passenger, official or contractor ordered or carried out the assassination. Flight logs ≠ intent.)
- @I_Am_JohnCullen — originated the drone drop-off and pick-up reading of the two low passes, and the "HADES N1098L is the elephant in the room" framing.
- @tjphager — the principal skeptic; argues the airframe lacks the external modifications a HADES ME-11B collection or drone-launch platform would carry.
- @JG_CSTT (Crowdsource The Truth) — circulated The War Zone article in connection with the case.
- @raumgeist — proposes a command-and-relay role toward Fort Huachuca rather than a launch role, while agreeing the airframe appears to be in a trainer configuration.
:::caution Legal Disclaimer Nothing on this page is a claim of fact that any living person or organization knew of, planned, participated in, or covered up any crime, or acted illegally, immorally, or unethically. This page documents questions and allegations raised in public commentary — not findings of fact. Bombardier, Sierra Nevada Corporation, Leidos, SAIC, LASAI Aviation II LLC and The War Zone are named here only as they appear in public reporting and public discussion; no wrongdoing by any of them is alleged or established. All persons and organizations named are presumed innocent. Tyler Robinson is charged, not convicted. :::