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Subscribe to RSSNBC's Jim Miklaszewski reports on the American stealth drone that crashed in Iran and whether it provides Iranians access to sensitive U.S. technology.
An American drone that crashed in Iran last Thursday was on a mission for the CIA, and is now in the hands of Iran’s military, NBC News has learned.
U.S. officials tell NBC that CIA operators were flying the unmanned drone when it veered out of control and headed deep into Iran. The drone eventually ran out of fuel and crashed in Iran's remote mountains.
The nature of the drone’s mission was secret and sources say it's still not clear whether the drone was operating in Iran or Afghanistan.
Officials here confirm that the vehicle was a highly secret stealth drone called an RQ-170, which looks more like a flying wing than an airplane — the same kind of drone that circled over Osama bin Laden’s compound in Pakistan as Navy Seals targeted the fugitive al-Qaida leader.
One major concern is that the Iranians could salvage highly sensitive technology used in the drone for cameras or sensors or even the stealth technology, and try to develop it for themselves.
Iranian media reported on Sunday that their country's military had shot down a U.S. reconnaissance drone in eastern Iran, but a U.S. official said there was no indication the aircraft had been shot down.
Iran has announced several times in the past that it shot down U.S., Israeli or British drones, in incidents that did not provoke high-profile responses.
"Iran's military has downed an intruding RQ-170 American drone in eastern Iran," Iran's Arabic-language Al Alam state television network on Sunday quoted a military source as saying.
"The spy drone, which has been downed with little damage, was seized by the Iranian armed forces," the source said. "The Iranian military's response to the American spy drone's violation of our airspace will not be limited to Iran's borders."
Iranian officials were not available to comment further.
The incident comes at a time when Tehran is trying to contain foreign outrage at the storming of the British embassy on Tuesday, after London announced sanctions on Iran's central bank in connection with Iran's nuclear enrichment program.
Reuters contributed to this report.
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Please,please tell me we have the technology on that that burned up the circuitry
Aviation Week postulates that these elements suggest the designers have avoided 'highly sensitive technologies' due to the near certainty of eventual operational loss inherent with a single engine design and a desire to avoid the risk of compromising leading edge technology. Wiki.
My guess is that nothing was compromised since according to wiki the drone was built without using cutting edge technology due to the high risk of losing them on the battlefield.
Unfortunately, probably not.
Iran has suddenly had a *huge* boost in its UAV project - which up until now was based on a remote-control toy helicopter they ordered online last Christmas with electronics manufactured in China!
Ah, subterfuge. Iran is stomping the egg shells, that's for true.
Doesn't matter. As one who builds 'secret' level military gadgets, the fun stuff could literally be handed to anyone and not be producable. The magic is in the manufacturing process, not the materials. Besides, the fact that US radar is powerful enough to detect our own stealth aircraft means stealth is useless to anyone but us. Yeah...I helped build that too. As long as our enemies believe the way to beat us is just around the corner, we're in a relatively safe position. The joke really IS on them.
No, why we would never spy on Iran, that would be silly. This drone was in a totally different country, and when it went haywire, it just freakishly turned the other way, and kept going until it was in Iran. Pure accident.
These are not the drones you were looking for...
Ah...as opposed to our UAVs with electronics manufactured in China! Sure would be nice if we manufactured our own defense components here in the US.
My wife builds a lot of stuff for our military, in Pennsylvania. Sure some of the components may be bought from other countries but they are built here. I would say more but don't want to risk anything that I shouldn't know getting out.
Guess its not a super-secret American stealth drone anymore.
Unit cost: $6,000,000
AHA! So the Iranians really did nail a US drone, despite the original spin. So now what? Obama et al have been braying about the new warfare that's conducted with unmanned drones, like other countries can't make their own drones? Soon we'll be making anti-drone weapons to countermand the drones from other countries. Oh joy.
Did they recover a downed drone... Or was it a botched "Fast and Furious" type of loss?
The drone was infected with Ebola......... :-)
From what I heard this morning on the world news these drowns have a built in security measure that will erase any sensitive material when they loose control of one of these. The biggest concern for the U.S. military is the material in which it is made out of. A special stealth metal that we really didn't want other countries looking at.
Maybe Bachmann can call our Embassy there in Tehran to ask if we can have our toy back.
I don't believe this. If the US is flying cutting edge intel-gathering technology over territory held by our enemies, that equipment has built-in self-destruct capability. Something else is going on here....
Yeah right, if the drone is really so backwards they wouldn't be keeping details on the thing so secret. It is amazing Iran seems to have such capable weaponry that they could down this thing. According to Israel, Hezbollah has downed several Israeli drones by disabling them some how in flight. Probably the same technique was used on this drone for I would think Iran provided Hezbollah whatever technology they are using against the Israeli drones.
How ridiculous our military has become. If it's top secret, it should have a self-destruct element to the damned thing. Cut the defense budget in half---at least---incompetent rodents inside the CIA run the show. While we can saw away at domestic budgets and GOP members swear allegiance to Grover Norquist, the country is falling to pieces.
Props to Snake09. Your comment made alot of sense. I commend you, good sir, for using your common sense. And I agree as well, tech like that is designed to be disposable in case of a critical situation.
Well, I guess the Beast of Kandahar isn't much of a secret any more...
Don't worry. The drone was invisible. You can't even see any of it without the magic spectacles.
observant - Acording to the post by snake09 "postulates" means assumes. That means wiki is guessing that there is no hi-tech involved.
Iran will just send it to China and it will be duplicated for $8.40. When Haliburton explained their overcharges to Congress on C-Span, they said. "We paid it back." Ironically, they never bothered to explain why they charged for meals that were never served to our troops, housing that was never provided, etc. They just admitted what they had been caught at and the government was reimbursed. That's a criminal act--yet, we continue to pump funds to defense contractors while they screw the taxpayer. Defense contractors are the real leeches that are the welfare takers. On the committee drilling Haliburton's legal counsel, not a word from a GOP member on the committee.
GOP--the party of "don't tax, but spend like hell." Reimburse the public for the thievery.
While I'm glad to hear that you wife's company assembles military hardware here, all you have to do is withhold the exported components and so much for assembly. Not really in our national defense interests if you ask me.
Maybe the Chinese chips were the reason for the drone to go haywire? The Chinese have demonstrated a certain level of software competency. The fact that the drone did not crash into little bits....
You can tell its Christmas, all this wishing and hoping we didn't screw up giving a drone to Iran.
Don't wait up, there is no Santa Claus, but the wool dispenser came early this year.
If this thing had revealing "top secret technology" the military should have had the technology to destroy it before the Iranians could get their hands on it. Otherwise, we must accept the military has stupidly given Iran a grand gift. Well, tis the season..............................................................
Assembled NOT Built. This is how China has stolen US Technology. China currently is getting all of the World's High Tech Minerals, used to build High Tech Electronics Components. example: The "Mineral Wealth of Afghanistan" (that we found while spelunking), especially the Lithium deposits, that were to be used at the US to manufacturer Lithium Electric Vehicle Batteries at Michigan.
In 2011, China announced a Trade Ban, that stops the export of High Tech Minerals out of China. This makes it so that ANY High Tech Components must be Made In China.
The High Tech Guidance Navigation and Control (GNC) of the North Korean copy of the Chinese Copy of the USSR SS - 18 ICBM, as sold to Iran and shipped thru Bejing China, is believed to be of a current US Missile GNC (maybe GPS based and non GPS based (digital internal) backups.) as Made In China (US Designed components manufactured at China). The Second Shipment of North Korean ICBMs to Iran were intercepted on a cargo ship 2011. Iran used one of these North Korean ICBMs to put a monkey into orbit, 15x, proving that this is truly an ICBM capable of striking any location on Earth using Earth Rotation to traverse the distances.
Currently the "Father Of The Pakistanis Nuclear Program" is at Iran.
Go talk to Another Darn Army (ADA, Air Defense Artillery) that are responsible for US THAADs. They can also talk to you about the current Russian Federation S-400s tested capabilities (ABM, and detect intercept Generation V Stealth, posted this long before this RQ thing.) that were sold to Iran for Iranian Oil. Iran uses these to protect their long range land based supersonic anti ship missile batteries, their IRBM and ICBM Missile locations (silos), and their Nuclear Facilities, augmented with other Anti Aircraft Missile Systems like the Russian Federation, S-300s.
I told all of you about what Iran is/has been doing; but, seems that sandtrich, suddenly learned Farsi and listens to the bragging of Iran thru their media, or has our Intel experts bugging the h3ll out him to look at their sh!t (because they are too f**kikng lazy to learn Farsi, Arabic, Pashtu, etc.). Less than 8 months and I will not have to deal with this sh!t anymore, Retirement and "Too Old" and NO more involuntary Recalls to Active Duty "For Matters of National Security" (to continually f**k up my Civilian Career).
This is what happens when the US lost the Mineral Wealth of the World, since many US Citizens do not see the whole picture (what is needed to maintain their Daily Standard of Living) and US Citizens b!tch about US Military used to obtain the World's Resources for them. Personally, I believe that we (the US Military) should NOT be used to obtain the Mineral Wealth, that way the US Citizens will be in for a rude awaking by having to live like the Afghans. When you do the actual research into Wars, Conflicts, Police Actions, etc. the final justifications are Economies, Land, Resources, etc. with the Democracy, "Tyrant", "Dictator", "His People" crap being overplayed and overused. example: French Indochina, French Colony, French Rubber Tree Plantations that supplied World's Rubber, after WWII Japanese withdraw US Ordered to Occupy French Indochina until French could reoccupy their Colony.
Zumbi,
"I would say more but don't want to risk anything that I shouldn't know getting out."
This shows how great our security is: That you know things you shouldn't know. :)
Another excuse for the Neocon Republicans to attack Iran if we are stupid enough to ever let them back into power. Their Military equipment backers must be burning the midnight oil since we are through in Iraq and winding down in AFGH
Dammit Zumbi,
This is why the rest of the armed forces hates intel weenies. You guys never actually have anything intelligent to say unless you're b****ing about something. :)
hahaha...sandywich is all fired up with his anti-american diatribe and drivle...it's some funny azz reading if your interested...he would have us go into full military shut down and follow Obobo's "we will TALK to our enemies and they will love us" routine, and yet as of the last week it was reported that more people hate us now than before he got the reigns...hahaha...I know! we can defend ourselves with harsh language!...isn't it cool?
@breadex
what do you Neocommunist Democrats think we should do about Iran?...just wondering
The Snake09 is right. If the technology in that drone was that worrisome for the Military to lose or have fall in the wrong hands, they wouldn't have used it in that region.
You guys don't think that the Military factors this in (the possibliity that the tech. could fall into the wrong hands) when they use it?
When it crashed any info. it had was rendered useless anyhow. You can take that to the bank.
what do you Neocommunist Democrats think we should do about Iran?...just wondering
Your the humor that keeps on giving.
That's the good part about having a brain that actually works, we just sit back and watch the chicken hawks run around with their head cut off.
The bright side is that we did not lose a pilot. That is the real reason these things were designed in the first place. JOB WELL DONE and thanks to all our military personell!
Is it anti-American to note that the US spends as much as the next 15 countries combined on defense? I think not. 6+ times that of China and 12 times that of Russia. I served and watched money wasted by the load. Forecasted revenue for 2012 = $2.2T and Defense related spending = $1.2T to $1.4T, (counting Veterans benefits, homeland security, etc)--all a cost of wars. There's always supplemental spending to go along with any number. How about that "undisclosed" black ops budget?
This country was born due to dissent and questioning "power." Do you guys just sit behind your desks at Northrop or Boeing and spin truths? A $7M piece of taxpayers money went down in Iraq and the fault lies with the builders of the drone, Lockheed Martin. Why was no mechanism aboard that would destroy the military secrets?
Oh--the small minds are out today.
If Iran had sent a drone over USA that would be considered an act of war.
If they had it they would be sending out pictures of it for propaganda value.
pointless article and unnecessary commotions in here.
i'm sure the design engineers had thought of this situation many years ago.
you don't wait until the drone crashes and start worrying, this isn't the stock or the real estate market.
That our jobs as American citizens-- to question the sanity of our government's imperialistic endeavors. With the other wars winding down they have to start another to make the military industrialist happy.
Member Since: 11/2011--it's 6 to $7M of taxpayers money. New guy, why don't you pay for it?
I thought the US sent in special hit squads that were designed to take out the Technology and seize any useful parts so there is nothing to worry about right?
Or am I mistaken?
sandtrich,
MORE OF YOUR SPAM NONSENSE POSTS.
Like I said over and over again, just like talking with a 2 year old.
1. Let us get rid of the almost hundred million overpaid expensive US Civilians of the US Military Defense Industrial Complex. Throw them all on Unemployment, and replace them with below minimum wage US Military Personnel. That would cut the US Military Defense Budget by at least 50%.
2. You, sandtrich, demand that all the US Military Installations at your State (actually Foreign Nation), and move the US Military Installations from your State to a State that wants them.
3. Allow the US Military to violate US Law (US Code), "US Military Must Buy Only US Products, Goods and Services", so that we can buy from the least expensive so that we do not have to buy the $300 hammers and expensive USAF Toilet Seats so that US Citizens can make "A Fair and Living Wage".
4. Allow the US Military to execute US Civilians for Contract Defaults, Fraud, Crimes Against the People, etc., like the Chinese and Russian Federation do to get the most for each Yuan or Russian Ruble. And no more US Civilians tying up Contracts for years in US Courts with the US Military not getting what they paid for. And no more Out of Court Settlements just so that the US Military can go to another US Contractor (Manufacturer) just to get the things made that they previously paid for.
You keep stating the Results and Effects (Symptoms) without even attempting to figure out the Cause, making it impossible for you to figure out a solution.
I want the Automatic Budget Cuts to happen. So that the 10% Automatic Budget Cuts of the US Military will throw a Million US Civilians employed by the US Military on Unemployment. That way you will look and be exactly what you are, uninformed, uneducated, emotive, adolescent. And do not say that that was stated by Leon Penetta just because it is his job as Secretary of Defense, since he was appointed by President Obama it is more than that (making sure President Obama does not f**k up so that he can remain as Secretary of Defense if President Obama is reelected.).
I am prepared for the next Global Great Depression that you want. As the current US Military Defense Industrial Complex as created by President FDR, was what got the US out of the Great Depression, 1939, and is currently keeping the US out of another Depression ever since the US Laws that made Illegal the Causes of the previous Depressions were eliminated 1999 and 2000.
I wonder what the reaction of the U.S. public and the U.S. government would be if the Iranians were flying drones over Minnesota or Idaho?
I think it be would considered an act of war.
We also fund terrorist groups like Jundallah, that make attacks in Iran killing and injuring Iranian citizens.
We also have thousands of nuclear weapons and have stated our "right" to use them even in a first strike situation.
So why is it that Iran is the "rogue" nation under international sanctions (that the U.S. twisted arms to get) and we aren't?
This is an indication of how brainwashed the U.S.public is by the government and the corporate media.
and by the way if you say we have the right because we are a democratic country and Iran is a theocracy here's a little history for you:
The Iranian people overthrew their dictator, the shah Palavi in the early 1950 or late '40's and put in place a democratic parliamentary government and the U.S. CIA then promptly overthrew it in 1954 and brought back the Shah and helped train his secret police who then went on to torture and murder thousands of Iranians until he was overthrown again and kicked out of the country in 1979.
Oh well I wish the pentagon had some money we could take another step from the drone to a dream..
I agree. We never live by the rules that we impose on others and, it's our right, as the only one to use atomic bombs, to monitor which countries do get nuclear technology. It's our "job" to enter the air space of any country because we're the USA. Yes--had Iran done what we did, the missiles would be ready to launch.
Good post.
-and gay sex and women are the reason for earthquakes.
Women's promiscuity causes earthquakes, says Iranian cleric — The ...
Over Taker--That quite a nasty attitude. How long do you think before they ban you again? That wonderful "ignore author" tool gets it's use.
When I used to work on military stuff, it was a given that self-destruct was the most redundant, fail-safe system. If the Iranians have much more than a smoldering carcass, I will be surprised...
David and Sandtrich:
FDR continued Hoover's economic intervention policy which prolonged America's Great Depression. America escaped the Great Depression when Americans were forced to manufacture and produce products for European and Pacific wars while drastrically cutting back consumption. Material and petroleum rationing coupled with Victory Gardens and massive recycling efforts during WWII enabled patriotic Americans to save their money and buy government war bonds as never before. In effect, Americans thrifty habits and gung-ho productivity during the war years lifted America out of the Great Depression. After the end of WWII, even with the massive number of GI returned from wars, America's industrial production continued to out-produce the rest of the world while maintaining the highest wages and standard of living.
In the '30s, Congressman Truman uncovered massive military waste as well as fraud. But for Truman's diligence, America would not have been as prepared for WWII, and the corrupt Pentagon procurement process would have handicapped America's waging two wars a decade later. If the preparation for war is highly susceptable to unscrupulous profiteers, the actual waging of war is even more so. During the Vietnam War, the US Navy spent several billions of dollars in the so called upgrading of Cam Ranh Bay, a deep water port in IV Corp, near Saigon, that never fulfilled its mission of providing comprehensive repairs to US Navy vessels. Cam Ranh Bay was not a complete failure, though, for the Russian Navy, the current major tenant, appreciate the much improve facilities. In I Corp, at Da Nang, the US Marines operated a whore house with generous subsidies courtesy of the US taxpayers. In IV Corp, Saigon, both the Presidents,Thieu and Ky lived luxurious lifestyle when measured relative to American upper middle class standard of living, courtesy of the US contributions. Meanwhile, the Air Force had spent nearly half a billions of dollars on the super-duper swing-wing, ground-hugging, terrain-contour matching F111 that proved to be a complete waste of money when all the squadrons sent to Vietnam either crashed or shot down within two month of operation. It became apparent that either no one tested the terrain radar or the radar was a piece of decoy designed to fool only the American taxpayer. The Army's troop carrier, the M223, helped the Viet Cong secretly kill more Americans as the aluminum alloy armor disintegrated into more shrapnels when attacked by RPG7s. With the popularity of the RPGs, it is astonding as to why the Pentagon never bothered to test the survivability of the M223, costing nearly $500,000, and more importantly the harm to the troop inhabitants. Finally, there is no need elaborating on the failure to provide for even 'Hillbilly' armor in HumVees operating in Iraq.
The waste of taxpayer money on over-priced and inferior weaponry have cost the lives of many American soldiers and jeopardized security of this nation. During the Cold and Hot War, the exigence provides an excellent cover for war profiteers to swindle the American taxpayers. To cover their criminals tracks, these crooks always resorted to waving the flag, pledging of alliance, and sing God Bless America to brainwash people. Unfortunately, even today, too many gullible Americans are just suckers for it.
Undertaker 8001: While you seem to have the ability to vary the same words through rather silly statements here and there, your self assumptive wit is as misplaced as a "dwarf in hip waders" standing in a mud hole.
Had to check up your comment for that alone!
LMAO!!
@!$%#in moron rightwing nutjobs who apply "American Exceptionalism" to fix the rep-tards' screwups.
The so called moth-@!$%#ing value-embracing gay-haters @!$%#s filled with garbage from catholic church -- get over yourself. @!$%#ing garbage.
Arch Stanton
re: post 1.47
In the spirit of fairness lets follow through on the "secret police" comment of yours.
SAVAK was the Shah's secret police. Admittedly they had some political prisoners and probably engaged in torture too. They went out with the revolution and the ayatollah and his religio-goons took power. Within a few short years information came out regarding the Ayatollah's/Revolutionary secret police. They made SAVAK look like angels by comparison..They arrested and punished a huge amount of people- many just disappeared and were heard from no more.. Their cumulative record has shown that the Iranians had it pretty damned good under the Shah, hated or not, and I would imagine that quite a few of them long for the good ol' days of the Shah.
The Iranians may have elected a democratic government that we overthrew in the 1950s but, once again in the spirit of fairness, lets look at the political situation then (very briefly). The COLD WAR had started- people tend to ignore this situation as the US & USSR never escalated it into a hot war with each other. Iran was right there next to the commies and the US wasn't about to have it's availability denied to it. With the USSR in possession of the ability and technical know-how to produce nuclear weaponry it was too important to us to maintain that access. Hundreds of millions of lives depended on it. Unfortunately the CIA went on a power trip (literally) and overthrew several other governments unnecessarily. We're still dealing with the repercussions from that CIA arrogance to this day. It was that kind of stuff that made JFK want to smash the CIA into a million pieces. Now we still have the CIA and have okayed another government department whose sole purpose is to spy on American Citizens (our very own KGB- the Department of Homeland Security). They even hired the former head of the Soviet KGB to give them pointers on how to do it!!! We can no longer claim any moral superiority over the former USSR- we have become them. The American people are showing themselves to be 'sheep to the slaughter' as much as the commies were. Disgusting cowardice in the face of tyranny.
Will Obama take credit for this screw up like he took credit for the Bin Laden case? Inquiring minds want to know.
The reason this drone can be successfully "mined" for technology is that so-called stealth technology is a cumulative collection of small technologies that reduce the "visibility" or an aircraft or vehicle. They include, but are not limited to:
1) radar-absorbing coatings, 2) radar dissipating shapes, 3) secure communications, 4) heat dissipation, 5) artificial intelligence, 6) sound-baffling technologies, 7) visually dsruptive coloration, 8) folded optics, and the list goes on.
In just one example, if a radar absorbing coating was reverse-engineered from the drone, it could then be applied to an existing Iranian fighter very inexpensively. This would make it very difficult for a radar-guided missile to lock on to the aircraft as well as reducing the range at which it can be detected.
One thing that will not be copied because it obviously was not designed into the drone is a "dead man" switch. Any unmanned aircraft of this sophistication should have incorporated both a command detonation provision and a provision for the craft to self-destruct when it loses communication with the command detonation communications thread for a pre-determined number of minutes. All of our space missiles have such a dual destruction provision to protect people and property from a missile gone awry so it is off-the-shelf technology.
The CIA has never had much of an intelligence-gathering operation outside of HUMINT that mainly came from the handling of indigenous traitors, turncoats and sellers of information. They were always an arrogant bunch who could not accept the tertiary role of HUMINT in the modern intelligence world. And it makes a great deal of sense that they would be careless with their toys.
From a longer range aspect, this can do nothing but feed Israeli paranoia. Given that Israel frequently over-reacts to imagined threats already, how long will it be until they are seeing Iranian stealth aircraft everywhere. The Iranians already have a cruise missle with a 600-nm range that could benefit from stealth technology that could be reverse-engineered from the drone. Add in the possibility that in the near future that a similar missile might incorporate new-found stealth technology and it will drive the Israeli's crazy.
you really think that wiki is a good place to get your information from?
To all you overpaid weapons designers -- please make your next generation of drones have a very powerful self destruct device that can double for KamiKaze missions!
One would think it would have some sort of self-destruct.
Most of them contain a form of fail safe programming that's aimed at returning the craft to a predetermined location for returning 'home' in the event that it loses the signal to the satellite that's redirecting the instructions from wherever the operator is stationed.
In this scenario, i think a complete system failure would've had to take place and the vehicle simply coasted until it ran out of power. At that point, under reasonably or optimal weather conditions, it could've glided to the ground without sustaining too much damage on impact with the last of its power reserves.
That would explain why the Iranians were, allegedly, able to acquire the UAV with relatively little damage. If they had actually hit it with a ground to air missile or any kind of ballistic AA gun, it would be in a million pieces scattered across the desert as they're not designed receive damage.
Solar flares?
Again with the "Desert" comments. Though I do love your Venture Brother's Avatar, good sir, I cannot help but point out how fallacious and poorly researched your statements are. Though the technological bits ARE accurate, I can't help but point out that calling a region with diverse Micro Climates that allow for Forests similar to those of our Maine , or of Ireland/England's , or Snowfall during the winter, for that matter, a "Desert", simply makes the rest of us Americans feel rather embarrassed. Sheesh.
Deserts are determined by the average yearly precipitation of an area, OS. Not its color on a satellite photo.
I'm certainly not claiming to be perfect, but I'm glad you like the Brock sig.
However, my reasoning behind the use of the word 'dessert' is b/c if you look at the map of Iran in relation to the borders in question, there are 2 rather large desserts just beyond the mountain ranges that are shared by both countries; the Lut & the Kavir.
Personally, if it had crashed closer to the actual border, it would've likely smashed to pieces no matter where it landed based on the topography. Between the general distance it could've flown after losing contact with the operator and the fact that it was allegedly in sizable pieces, I assumed it had inadvertently drifted further into Iran near the desserts in question and was recovered by locals vs the border where the population is a lot more spread out.
I'm just guessing here like everyone else, but i'm very much aware that the entire country of Iran isn't one big dessert.
You had it right the first time, Sono.....desert, not dessert. That is one English spelling i've never been able to understand. You would think the food "dessert" pronounced "de-sert" would be spelled that way and the land mass "desert" pronounced "dez-ert" would be spelled with the double s. Oh well, that is why English is so difficult for many foreigners (and even Americans) to learn.
"The design lacks several elements common to stealth engineering, namely notched landing gear doors and sharp leading edges. It has a curved wing platform and the exhaust is not shielded by the wing. Aviation Week postulates that these elements suggest the designers have avoided 'highly sensitive technologies' due to the near certainty of eventual operational loss inherent with a single engine design and a desire to avoid the risk of compromising leading edge technology."
I wouldn't worry too much about this one...
haha, that was a good 'derp' on my behalf. Way to second guess yourself Sono...
My Kingdom for a real chat interface with editing options that last beyond the first 5 minutes!
*lol, upon rereading my comments again I am no longer able to read any of it without thinking of the actual desserts you would eat...regardless of the spelling.
Sono, don't worry about the guessing because it what everyone else is doing since there is very little reliable information. As for the spelling, who really should care as long as they can grasp the intent of the message. Of course there are some with severe reading comprehension disabilities that forces you sometimes to explain it in detail. :-)
ObeservantSavant,
They don't bother to look at a Map to figure out that most of this Country, 2/3rds, Afghanistan, is mountains, so what do you expect. This was one of the reasons why prior to returning here (yes we were here before) we had refresher training with the Deutsche Bundeswehr Commandos at the Zugspitze, then further training with US Ally Turkey at southern Turkey (similar to mountains here). Most do not know about the similar mountains that are also at the Autonomous Kurdistanis Region, as similar to what is at Iran. Most of us had graduated from the US Military Mountain Warfare School before (Summer and Winter Phases, Technical Mountain Climbing (this spoiled one of my previous hobbies by making it a Mission/Job, just like all the other hobbies I had (Sky Diving, Open Water Diving, Hunting, Marathons, etc.). Mount Everest is part of the Pamir Mountain Range.
http://www.bing.com/maps/default.aspx?q=pamir&mkt=en-US&FORM=BYFD
Many that never been here do not know about the near Arctic Winters (most of us also went to Winter/Arctic Warfare School, two actually were assigned to Antarctica before). This also ruined my other hobby while Stationed at Germany, Skiing; so now my hobbies are watch repair (mechanical self winding) and jewelry making (lost wax process, gold and silver. casting). In 2009 we had two avalanches, in 2010 we had one avalance. After winter we have flash floods, little trickling streams few inches deep and wide turn into raging rivers that are carry big boulders, trees, vehicles, etc.. sandtrichthis is just one of those things not in your books that are written by non participants based on information from other non participants, with you stating the nonsense that I was not involved with everything I previously mentioned. And to make sure that you cannot use this information as an impostor I left details out, that someone else that has been involved in the same things can use to expose you as in impostor, just like I caught a rear area mother f**ker claiming to his crowd of buddies at the Boardwalk at Kandahar AFB that he was involved in things that we were doing (he just did not know the details, so one of my NCOs kept asking him questions until he screwed up.).
One would think it would have some sort of self-destruct.
Actually you would HOPE the self destruct codes worked, and then, perhaps it didn't!
Either way there is plenty to copy, just ask the Chinese, they had a great tour in Pakistan taking pictures of our stealth helicopter.
Sono....Poor Man's Pie, Pecan Pie, Ice Cream or Banana Smoothies, the black raspberries I can't afford here in the USVI, my homemade chocolates, hehe.
@ Undertaker - I think you missed his point. The definition of a desert is based on how much rain it gets a year. Not how much sand is around or the color of the land. LA is a desert. Parts of Alaska are desert. The north pole is a desert even though it's covered in snow all year around. Same with the south pole.
Something doesn't smell right here. How to you shoot down an aircraft and yet it sustain very little damage? Shouldn't a drone have a self destruct? All this makes me wonder if instead of shooting it down, they hi-jacked it electronically. After-all if the drone is flown via remote signals sent to it, then any person or group that can send the right signals could theoretically take over the drone. I'm sure there is suppose to be security to prevent such a take over, but it not like hackers are completely helpless.
The security measure is in the high frequency radio signal we use...no one else can replicate it. The signal is around 80GHz. Japan is 2nd place in this area, but they are at least 5 years behind.
Okay...I'll tell you. The magic is that all of the internal circuitry is able to operate at 80GHz, including the motherboards. The limitations of copper/fiberglass boards is gone when you use gold/ceramic. Dieletric constants in ceramic are so high that signals up to 80GHz remain stable.
I'll stop there. I don't need the government on me...
Ooops, too late.
It doesn't matter what frequency the control and communications systems operate on; they are all encrypted. Without the proper encryption keys, an enemy can't intercept communications and controls. This means they wouldn't be able to take over a radio (terrestrial or satellite) controlled drone, since they have access control and security systems that require electronic keys.
The only thing the enemy may be able to do is jam a frequency, which is why the military employs frequency-hopping on many of its radio systems.
Couldn't they just use EMP?
If I don't care about the circuit boards and am just interested in the materials used to construct it, what do I care if EMP knocks out all the circuitry?
@Tired...
EMP haha what are you playing COD, first the only way for that to happen is a nuclear bomb blowing up in the atomosphere and I think we would have heard about that and second the drone doesn't have a self distruct feature because that drone is completely full with electrontics were there wouldn't be enough explosives to completely destroy it so normal after this happens we put a lot of ordnance on the down drone.
Let's just hope it has a remote detonation device, so when the president of Iran and the head of the clergy pose for a photo op with the device, it will then self-destruct! I know I am way out there, but that would be a pretty Machiavellian move on our part.
In the first reports that I read a day or two ago the Iranians were quoted as saying that it was their military "cyber" division that brought it down. I suspect that the way they got it down with little damage was by hacking it and flying it to where they wanted it. These drones are little more than an extremely costly video game on steroids anyway.
@briksquad.................EMP's are not only caused by nuclear explosions.There are several ways a EMP can be created.,including explosively pumped flux compression generator which the US has fitted to cruise missiles and drones
@vayne1
I doubt that Iran has that technology and i believe the only way for them to cause a emp would be nuclear explosion above ground and i bet some of the forces in the area would have report that their electronics don't work anymore or look at Iran and see if light are on by satellite.
Beat me to that (EMP/EMR). Just like we used 2002/2003 against the Iraqis Military to knock out all their C4I. In 2002, after US Congress Declared War With Iraq, with US Law, 2002 Iraqi War Resolution.
We were redeployed from Afghanistan (2001 weeks after the 9/11 2001 attacks we were sent to Afghanistan to overthrow the Taliban Government*) to Northern Iraq to live with the Kurdistanis to gain their trust, organize them to fight the Iraqis Military, arm them, lead them while attached to SAD. The missions were, make the Iraqis Military Command believe that the Main US Military Attacks would come thru US Ally Turkey so that they would deploy the Main Iraqis Military Forces North of Baghdad, seize and secure the Northern Iraqis Oil Fields. Prior to attacking the Iraqis Military, the USAF deployed non Nuclear E-Bombs (EMP) to kill all Iraqis Electronics (Military and Civilian (used as alternate to Military). We had previously removed the batteries out of all our electronics, and ground wired all the outer metal casings; some of us with (particular model) Casio digital watches, oh well (I was wearing a Seiko Chronograph Mechanical watch that I bought at the PX at Saigon). The EMP/EMR was strong enough to overpower the normally heavily shielded Armor (Tanks), Mechanized (Vehicles), this helped (but not the only reason) us (two companies of us, and companies of Kurdistanis we trained) to destroy 6 Full Strength Iraqis Armor and Mechanized Infantry Divisions, north of Baghdad. Later on the US Military Conventional Warfare Forces coming from Kuwait and Saudi Arabia start the 2003 US Military Liberation of Iraq*.
*documented here, but not what we did to the south and at the Afghan Cities. http://dougstanton.net/
*E-Bombs documented here, http://www.hartford-hwp.com/archives/27a/283.html
*https://www.cia.gov/library/center-for-the-study-of-intelligence/csi-publications/csi-studies/studies/vol.-54-no.-2/operation-hotel-california-the-clandestine-war.html, I posted some details not in this link.
So, briksquad, it does not take a Nuclear Bomb to create a EMP/EMR. Like I previously posted, before I became "Middle East" Qualified language Farsi, I was with the Intermediate Range Nuclear Forces (INF), before that I was a Nuclear Physics (weapons, CNWDI) instructor, course writer, then course evalutator, and later the Branch Chief. Before assignment to the INF, I was also trained by USAMRIID (Biological, Epidemiology), and also Chemical (weapons) at Maryland.
Also what Logres is telling you is not the entire truth pertaining to RF or even Satellite uplinks and downlinks. Nor is he aware of the low tech and no tech methods that the Taliban, Al Quada, Hamas Foreign Fighters, Islamic Chechen Foreign Fighters, Pakistanis Taliban, Army of Islam Pakistan (not the Pakistanis Government Army), etc. have been and are using against our RQs and MQs. And since Fundamentalist Islamic Iran has been and is supporting them with weapons, ammunition, funds, etc., you think they did not tell Iran what they have been and are successfully using against our RQs and MQs here (Afghanistan).
I'll stop there. I don't need the government on me... Really?
The head end MAY operate at a high frequency while everything after that runs at normal speeds for reliability.
Most internal systems operate on fiber links and cat lines.
80 ghz is easy, a simple TV dish works at 24 ghz, commercial ones even higher, and jamming a signal over there is as simple as the fact their signal is local and stronger than ours, while ours is way over the horizon.
The secretes in the machine lie in the software while sensitive information on board is unnecessary other than the basic command codes, [used in flight, but volatile if its shut down / crashes] and they are encrypted and can be changed on the fly or perhaps on the ground for safety for reasons.
Overriding any signal as a whole will render the commands to both sides unusable, hence it may crash or fall back into safe mode and land....where we don’t want it to?
Its modified logic we use in unmanned space craft.
Hold on a second, the US has been claiming adamantly since yesterday that no drones have been lost, and they don't know what Iran has been talking about shooting one down. The Iranians recover the remains and suddenly the story changes to "Oh yeah, we did have a drone flying in the area, but it went out of control and crashed".
The military needs to learn to fess up to mistakes better, because in the end this type of situation just makes them look like fools at best, and liars at worst.
We are good at that, try to cover up s*it. More money for DARPA and others to come with another toy that can be easily shot down by a sling shot. We should never understimate our enemy, USA shouldn't wait till this rouge country fully develop their nukes., just incase IRAN develop it and shoot anybody with it, it's USA fault. Any BS sanction will not work, just look at Korea.
It takes time to identify the lowest ranking individual to blame it on.
Nothing new here. Don't you remember when the USSR shot down our U-2 spy plane? We denied we ever had such a plane, and that it certainly wasn't overflying the USSR. Until the yproduced the wreckage and the pilot, Powers. And that's when our story changed. To think the military is ever honest with the American public is naive at best; ignorant better describes it.
(where's the delete/ cancel button)
It's easy to know who to blame it on. The pilot didn't spend enough hours playing Nintendo back when he was a kid. Honestly, there's a whole pool of people out there with the right skill set to recruit from. Hell, MSNBC is a joint partner of microsoft as they like to remind us. Just go look up everyone's X-Box live gamer score and you have your winners.
Rogue not rouge.
And Jimbo, no one admits to things right away. The Iranians had an entire missile base blow up, and msnbcshowed before and after satellite photos of it as proof, while they were still denying it. Hell, my godson wouldn't admit to coloring on the walls with the marker still in his hands. It's human nature.
Don't blame us, everything released to the US Public must be cleared by President Obama's Political Appointees and Interns (thousands of Bureaucrats sent here by President Obama's August 2009 US Civilian Surge). Ask General McKiernan, General McChrystal and General Petraeus.
What I don't understand is why the information is withheld from the US Citizens, while the rest of the World already knows/knew. And not only about this RQ thing.
I don't think this was a mistake or a malfunction if you get my meaning. Inside work to help out our enemies. I highly doubt that it just lost communication and crashed in Iran. I know it sounds like a conspiracy theory but.........
Don't worry. The Iranians will use the RQ-170 only to make kubideh wraps and ostrich sandwhiches.
James Bell-Comedian. Eat another mouthful of potato chips, have a swig of Bud, and go back to your porn flix, you moron.
The problem with this is not the Iranians and what they will do with this technology. The Iranians can't stick their finger up their butts with both hands. They will give it to the Russians or the Chinese and they will reverse engineer the thing, especially the stealth technology.
At least they got the one doesn't work right. Now they will build a drone that flies in circles and crash lands in Syria while trying to recon Israel.
that is one vote from me for your fine humor sir! I know there are good people in Iran, and inside everyone of them is an American trying to get out! Oh yeah, and girls gone wild Iran will go platinum
No operational military aircraft, drone or otherwise, have remote activated self-destruct systems. If they did, they could be destroyed by the enemy if they obtained the destruct codes.
You need to separate Hollywood from reality. The question is akin to asking the police why they didn't shoot the gun out of the bad guys hand.
What's wrong with shooting guns out of the bad guys hand. I saw Jax do it last week to Opie. Did you miss that?
Actually, a self destruct for some sensitive equipment is probable. The destruct signal would be an encrypted code that was changed every 24 hrs or every flight (Star Trek anyone....). Impossible to defeat because you would first have to break the encryption key which is changed every 24hrs. and then know the destruct code which is changed every flight. And that's not to mention frequency hopping that could be included.
I worked electronic countermeasures in the Air Force in the early 70's. Some of our more exotic stuff did indeed have a self destruct system.
But Opie's not a bad guy! Clay is the bad guy! lol I love SOA
They arent referring to a self-destruct of the whole aircraft, but to a mechanism that destroys circuitry with sensitive information on it. This scenario is not Hollywood, it does exist and is very expensive if accidentally activated to "re-burn" the information on it.
It wouldn't matter if there was a remote activated self-destruct system on the drone. They lost communication with it, so there would be no way to send a destruct order remotely
Frequency hopping is used. The military uses it even for routine radio traffic.
Maybe the drone's mission actually was to get captured? Congratulations Iran, you fell for the Trojan Horse!
i was thinking the same thing. there's more than one way to spy on someone....just slap a gps locator on it, and wherever it goes becomes a possible target.
Or maybe the drone achieved self-awareness and defected.
You know, the guy is on to something here. Yeah, that's the ticket. We crash unmanned drones in Iran, except next time we put Chuck Norris on board, yeah that's the ticket. Then Chuck (only his real true friends can call him that) rides around on a special dirt bike that shoots missiles and stuff. And then he could wipe out the bad guys (fill in your favorite bad guy as desired) and bring home the captured airmen. Oh yeah I forgot, we need some downed airmen (a really cute chick, maybe blonde, would do, maybe blonde twins...) any way, I think it could work...Who knows...maybe. Hey...is Rambo available,no...maybe Matt Damon, no too current...I got it...Adam Sandler and Chuck Norris...too good.
I was thinking that, too. Can Iran be totally sure that as they celebrated their "find", some mini drone-lets didn't already crawl out of the "motherdrone" into their nuclear facilities undetected? Something to keep them awake at night....
Better yet, install a virus in the circuitry of the drone and let them try to reverse engineer it.
I have to ask this seemingly silly question. Can the radio controls of our drones be overpowered by a competing controller on the same frequencies, as can happen with model airplanes? Also, if they are so "top secrete", shouldn't they be equipped with self destruct features that would automatically destroy the aircraft if it looses the control signal for more than a few minutes?
Just asking!
Yes, a pretty damn good hacker........
Questions are good. True Socratic Method to find the Truth, not the perverted Socratic Method of Lawyers (Trained to win their arguments by any means, "Errors of Omission" (aka lying), Facts Irrelevant, etc.).
The simple answer is yes. Research ECM (Electronic Counter Measures) and ECCM (Electronic Counter Counter Measures). Think of it this way, a Lock is only a delay device, someone smarter than the designer of the Lock will find a way to get the Lock open.
The complex answer, is that all Radio Frequencies are Radiated Energy being sent and received. So if you have enough Radiated Energy being broadcast, the transmitter and receiver are defeated at the intended target. Ever since the US started to rely on Digital this means low voltage and low amperage transmitters and receivers. So if the Digital is hit by high powered Radiated Energy, say like a old school television broadcast antenna transmitting on rotating frequencies, the digital burns, making all the digital encryption and decryption of the controls irrelevant after the transmitter and receiver are destroyed. An example of this is the High Tension Wires that are below a certain number of feet, the fluxuations, creating Electro Magnetic Radiation strong enough to screw up the Digital Technology in most US Vehicles (computers, microprocessor, diodes, transistors, alternators (circuits), electronic steering, electronic brake pedals, electronic assisted brakes, etc.).
An unclassified example of low or no tech defeating US High Tech. During the Vietnam War, the US developed Terrain Following Radar for the USAF F-111, to fly at very low levels to avoid Surface to Air Missiles. The Viet Cong solution was simple, fire aluminum foil into the air ahead of a F-111, the F-111 Terrain Following Radar would see this as a Mountain, with the F-111 increasing thrust and going straight up, and stalling, then usually crashing. Some of them did not increase thrust and go straight up, some went straight down into the ground at full thrust. This is just one more of those details that not many that were not there know about. And when I say launched aluminum foil, think cheap Chinese New Years Rockets (the fireworks type rockets use powdered aluminum for some of the glowing explosions). Some of the Rockets that they used to attack our Firebases with were really large, so just changing the explosive warhead to aluminum foil dispersal, simple for them.
@ David - I was thinking the same thing. If your transmitter is strong enough and covers enough frequencies, the radio sending commands to the UAV will not get through. The devil may be in the details, but the concept is simple.
Major snafu! Time to send the Special Ops Team.
You do that.
Special Operations, 3% of the US Military. US Military 1/2 of 1 % of the US Citizens. 92% of US Citizens have Never served in the US Military. You want to know how many know Farsi.
No one in the DOD or CIA will lose sleep over this. The Iranian government, however, has a reason to put a new holiday on their calendar.
Didnt they have a story a while ago about drones being hacked, and the key strokes being recorded? And now suddenly they have one that is out of control?
Sounds like a little more is going on then what is being reported, but nothing new with that.
we had several chances to rid the world of Armanutjob , maybe next time opportunity knocks we should act in the interest of peace and security for the world. just do it !
Wait for it. This drone will mysteriously explode while he is making a VIP inspection of it. LOL!
Like Castro, having these nuts in place allows for all of the propaganda which follows in justification for build up of war against sovereign nations, with Congressional approval.
A big game we all lose except for the MIC contractors and politicians...
How very nice ,more high tech military equipment lost . It won't take Iran long to duplicate the drone , since it was hardly damaged . Hope they use made in China electronics . Why was no self destruct built into the drone ? It seems that was overlooked by the drone design team . But they got the Idea from toy radio control planes that don't have a self destruct built into it ,
Iranian engineers are about as smart and talented as a box of hammers. They were given f-14s by the US during the Iran Iraq war, and not only where they unable to replicate the technology - which was already a decade old at the time it was granted - but they couldn't even keep the aircraft in operating order.
Snafus are bound to happen when you've got as many moving pieces in play at once as the US military does. Iran will make a big stink over this; maybe burn some flags; maybe kill some protesters for fun, but that's about it. It's the nukes we need to worry about.
Dumb as they may be, they've got the resources to make themselves quite dangerous if they have a fission device in their possession.
Lady, are you serious? You're adding more fuel to the fire that is Fear Mongering. Though I find your comments funny/humorous, I must say that they are quite fallacious. I'm shocked that you're saying all of this on an MSNBC article and not that of FOX. -Sigh- The Uneducated cease to amaze me. Remember Kids: "Kein Mehrheit Für Die Mitleid". No Pity For The Majority.
Esperanza Covicik, the F-14s were a part of the Iranian Air Force long before the Iran-Iraq war. They were sold to Iran without the sophistacated radar technology that was sold to Israel or any other ally country. And, they couldn't keep them in operating order because, after the embargo, they were not able to get replacement parts for them.
Seriously, why the hell would we give the Iranians anything remotely military related after 1979? The Iran-Iraq war happened in the 80's and we supported Saddam. This drone is the closest thing Iran has gotten as a gift from us since their president Ahmadinejad found a mint on his pillow in his hotel room in New York.
Does America plan on sending replacement parts for the downed drone? If not, it's probably about as useful to Iran as some ceiling art.
shhhh... Don't go spreading logic around like we're all supposed to think that way. They're still complaining about the self destruct switch that will take Tehran with it.
Esperanza Covicik,
Once again the Non Participants posting crap that they read somewhere that was written based on information from other Non Participants.
I was on the US Military Training Teams to US Ally Iraq during the Iran Iraq Wars, before we got sent to Pakistan/Afghanistan to train the 1980s Pro US Afghan Muhajeen to defeat the USSR 40th Army Occupation of Afghanistan.
The F-14s were of the Shah of Iran's Military. After the Fall of the Shah of Iran, US Ally. The Fundamentalist Islamic Iranian Government purged their Military (executed anyone suspected or having been associated to the Shah's Military, basically all of their Trained Military Officers and most of their NCOs.).
So while we were at US Ally Iraq, we trained the Iraqis Military in basic US Military Infantry Tactics, including interlocking machinegun fires, T&E's, Range Charts, and final protective lines of fire. To make sure that they were fully trained we would accompany them into combat to make on the spot corrections, and to make observations to modify our later training of them. So when the Iranians attacked, since they did not have any Trained Officers, NCOs, etc., they attacked in human wave attacks by the hundreds to thousands. To this day, I still have nightmares of these Iranian human wave attacks being mowed down by the Iraqis interlocking machinegun fires and supporting mortar fires, and those that were not immediately killed screaming laying in piles on the ground. The Iraqis would allow the Iranians to take their wounded away, with the Iranians shooting their wounded in the head and leaving the bodies (that is what they got for failing to overrun us). Some of those that were attacking us, were the Pro USSR Afghans that fled Afghanistan (since the USSR did not care which Afghans they massacred during the USSR 40th Army Occupation), and when they returned to Afghanistan became the Fundamentalist Islamic Taliban, that massacred the 1980s Pro US Afghan Muhajeen (20, 000 to 50,000) after the US abandoned our US Ally the 1980s Pro US Afghan Muhajeen (why the current Afghans do not trust us to not abandon them again to get massacred by the same Fundamentalist Islamic Taliban).
During those days the USSR was Allied to Fundamentalist Islamic Iran (and still are). The US was Allied to Iraq. Eventually, the Iraqis started to lose, since they were fighting both the Iranians, and the Iranian Allies, the Kurdistanis. The Iranians actually started to invade Iraq. At this time the Iraqis used Chemical Weapons to stop the Iranian Invasion and the continous attacks by the Kurdistanis (Armed men, women, children)*. This is what Ended the Iran Iraq Wars. Hint: We knew from what we saw (free to travel all over US Ally Iraq) that the Iraqis did not have the capability at that time to manufacturer Chemical Weapons.
*See Section 2 "Findings" of US Law, 1998 H.R. 4655, "Iraq Liberation Act of 1998", justification Weapons of Mass Destruction. After the lesser means to Overthrow President Hussein failed, US Congress used the Final Option, the US Military, by Declaring War With Iraq with the US Law, 2002 Iraqi War Resolution.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1057063/posts
And before you even think it, we, US Military Training Teams to Pakistan/Afghanistan attached to SAD did NOT train Osama Bin Laden nor Al Quada. Osama Bin Laden was living with his rich relatives at Saudi Arabia forming the new Islamic Jihadist Organization, Al Quada, and thinking of ways to gain International Recognition for Al Quada (later planning of the 1993 First World Trade Center Bombing). It was standard operating procedure for us to photograph, fingerprint, write detailed descriptions, and record name, address, place of birth, physical features, etc. of everyone we trained so that if necessary they could be used as Intelligence Assets.
Technology moves fast and if we were wise we would be be trying to get ourselves and the world out of ot his insane armament race.
The only way out is to lose. Guess what happens to the losers.
heh, hope they come standard with software worms.
Oh. China will buy it. Yes.
I think Russia will want it too. Iran could find itself in an old fashion bidding war. (That's the good kind of war from Iran's view point.)
You'd think that the people who develop these things would watch sci fi films... why do these things not have self destruct systems that can be triggered remotely? Just think of the valuable targets that these could take out as the ones who captured it stood there gloating over their prize? A small amount of C4 in just the right place in the drone could be very very useful.
How can you trigger something remotely, when you lost communication with it?
On the other hand, if we can self destruct it someone else can too. That happens all the time in Sci-Fi too. :)
You don't have to shoot it down, you just have to take over or interfere with the satellite telemetry.
easier said than done, WAY easier.
Maybe not, when you have a nations resources. And if what I have read is true, then some of the electronics and chips came from Asia. So who knows if a virus is in the hardware. With our lack of Engineers, we are importing more and more all the time. It could be an imported engineer place a virus in the system... Now that would suck!! Happy war mongering, people...
Just yesterday the U.S. was saying no drones were lost to Iran... how odd it is that now the U.S. says oh by the way one did go "haywire" come on we have been talking about Iran and wanting to war monger them for about a month on this go around.. a few years ago we did it then to.. but please don't insult me by saying a drone when "haywire" all the while talking war and how Iran has nuke's and we want to know more. then a spy drone is downed in iran... odd? i think the U.S. government or the media thinks its people are stupid... are we? How does the government know it wasn't shot down? They don't know where it is remember it went "hard right into Iran" laughable... how stupid are we?
This mess seems very similar to the time our U2 "weather" plane was shot down after it "strayed" over the Soviet border.
The CIA was certain that no useful information would be gleaned from the wreckage then as well. Hopefully they have learned something about securing hardware since then.
don-385532 did you say strayed, you dummy , it was on a spy mission, trying to rewrite history, you smuck
By the way, a threat that it would blow up in their faces would do wonders to encourage people to stay away from it.
remember the virus that we got around 2 months ago.. the said system that controled the drones got a virus but it was not a problem. smells fishy to me i think the drone was taken over.. by iran
Please tell me that the person operating the drone remotely also has a self-destruct button that he/she can engage in situations like this. Please....Please....Please....
If Iran can jam or take over the drone aircraft control signal then a remote self-destruct command wouldn't work. We just "gave" Pakistan our latest technology stealth helicopter and now this. It's just a matter of time now before foreign militaries can match or best our state-of-the-art stealth equipment.
I'll bet that representatives of the Chinese military get to examine the wreckage of the drone just like when that stealth fighter crashed in the Balkans a few years back.... that time, they even got to take samples back to China.
Have them repair it and send it back to us in mint condition. Now, is that asking to much?
last, I like it. That would be one smooth and brilliant diplomatic move by Iran. That would put the west on its heals and make Iran look more diplomatically advanced than us.
IRAN: most of the American public really does not care that you have it.....we have more.
It's the technology, sir. The US just made Iran millions of dollars because they can sell the drone to China, Russia, etc. to save them tens or even hundreds of millions in stealth R&D costs.