Aww the Iranians are so cute.. they've laid out a special quilt complete with stripes and skulls where the stars are supposed to be.. lmao

Really, can anyone picture any normal country that just seized an enemy drone decorating the display with that? its almost comical if it wasn't for the part where there seeking nuclear weapons

Well Al, nobody claimed that the Iraniens are playing with a full deck!!! So, what do you expect?

None of this is comical. They clearly have nuclear scientists working on nuclear weapons. I am sure they have the ability to reverse engineer quite a bit of the technology. Dangerous.

I was wondering if they shot it down with a BB gun. There is NO visible damage to the drone...mdsj is right, it's not funny, but even if they figure out the technology, you are assuming they have the ability to duplicate it.
I would be more concerned with China or Russia getting their hands on it, kinda like when the Pakistani military let China access the wreckage of our helicopter after we took out Bin Laden...they were something like an Ally, Iran is not, by any stretch of the imagination.

I think people are focusing on the word "shot" down too much. Maybe they should have worded it that they "brought" the plane down. The article does say that "Ali Hajizadeh said an electronic ambush by Iranian forces brought down the drone, which he said was controlled by two stations in Afghanistan and the United States via satellite." which means they say they interuptted the signals and basically jammed it so it would crash. Regardless I think the truth may never really be known. The U.S. is going to deny everything and come up with a myriad of reasons why it crashed, any of which or none of which could be the real truth. Hell, they lied that Iran even HAD the thing at first, then retracted that.

well, they did say it was taken down by electronic attack, which makes sense. Drone planes are not really the most sophisticated things on modern battlefields, I doubt there was much new or sensative they could glean from it. Would have been sweet to blow it up with a hellfire just as they were approaching it though. Probably would have gotten a little collateral damage for the buck, so to speak.

mdsj.

The Iranians are not who you worry about with the drone. They are not that smart. But they are smart enough to give it to the Chinese. Thats where you need to worry

Hey Al, if the Iranians gave WMD's to Iraq while we were at war with Iraq, and 800,000 Americans were killed, would you take the Iranian flag and put skulls on it? Just curious what you're take is on us supporting Saddam with Chemical Weapons that he used on Iran during the Iraq Iran War. Just curious if you know about that or not, it's public knowledge. Would you be upset if one of your relatives were part of the 800,000 that were killed. I know I would be upset. I'm not justifying any actions, i'm just saying their culture is an eye for an eye and our government assisted Iraq in the massacre. I'm sure they had their reasons, and I'm sure if it were my relative, I wouldn't care what reason they came up with for justification.

Military Man.......The report says they claim to have ambushed it electronically. That seems feasible to me. If they somehow managed to gain control of its systems why couldn't they just fly it deeper into Iran and try to land it with as little damage as possible?

Remember that Iran's nuclear research area was attacked with a computer virus targeted at CNC controllers made in Germany. The game is being played by people well trained in electronics. Is this just a message from some other player saying we've figured you out? It would probably be interesting to see who is examining the drone.

Joe

Please show where the US gave chemical weapons to Iraq. Or could it b just a jump to feed you position?

Another failure by our CIA. We give them billions of dollars each year and they give our most recent technology to our enemies. The CIA's failures have been so atrocious over the past 15 years that I am starting to question just who they are working for.

mdsj

lets send them a nuke warhead via an ICBM and see if they can shoot it down and reverse engineer it.

I Like your thinking ............ LOL

Michael Bishop, you are right. They had just given them the nuke technology and now the drone technology, way to go USA.

I find it just inconceivable that we do not have redundant systems and self destruct mechanisms in place just to prevent our high tech weapons from falling into the wrong hands. This is just plain piss poor planning on the CIA and the manufacturer's part. I shudder to think what else we are not properly protecting. These guys need to wake up!

Hey Joe, first of all chemical weapons are relatively easy to manufacture and have been around since WW1 so Iraq really did not need US help to get them, second of all the high casualty figure of 800,000 stems from ill equipped Iranian "troops" (mostly young kids) forced by their officers to attack Iraqi positions and bum rush them in exchange for martyrdom (they were, however, well equipped with virgins and ability to grant martyrdom), sometimes with suicide vests and no guns at all, to brake through the defenses thus killing huge numbers, and third of all - a little history lesson will tell you that US supported Iraq in the war because of a little thing called embassy hostages during the revolution. If you want to blame US for something at least get your facts straight and blame them for installing Shah as a leader. jeez lol

Sounds to me like the perfect excuse needed for the white house to war with iran. Pretty convenient.

tw1sted

mdsj.

The Iranians are not who you worry about with the drone. They are not that smart. But they are smart enough to give it to the Chinese. Thats where you need to worry

That is not good thinking. You never underestimate your enemy. That is when you get too comfortable and let your guard down. The fact that a terrorist state can potentially copy highly sensitive technology is very disturbing.

Why didn't the drone self destruct? Why can't the US miltary send a self destruct signal?

Something terribly wrong here that we have lost sophisticated military technology so easily.

Heads should roll.

Well Al, nobody claimed that the Iraniens are playing with a full deck!!! So, what do you expect?

I doubt they are playing with a full deck. I don't think Ahmadinejad is a sane person at all... but neither are our leaders. Remember how everyone was claiming Iraq had WMDs? Not to mention we spent trillions of dollar to get a former CIA-jackass on a dialysis machine...who watched really bad porn. I can see us coughing up trillions more when we elect Mittens or Newt to go in and "liberate" Iran.

Beam me up...

I do not think we should be underestimating the level of intelligence the Iranians have. Genius is one step away from insanity. And the leaders are insane. So someone over there is very smart. Just not the leaders. And that is very dangerous.

Second looks like the early withdraw from Iraq now shows it's true meaning. Saudi Arabia will host airstrikes from Israel for sure and from us maybe.

Reverse engineering has one flaw> Now we use a different updated drone while they have the outdated version. Which we know how to take down. Or turn to our advantage.

It wasn't self destructed because they lost electronic control of it. The "item"isplayed was on a basketball court, and if you look at the top of the key versus the size of the "item", there is no way that is a 70 foot wing span. Maybe it was HO scale???

tw1sted

mdsj.

The Iranians are not who you worry about with the drone. They are not that smart. But they are smart enough to give it to the Chinese. Thats where you need to worry

"and in July, media said Iranian military officials showed Russian experts several U.S. drones reportedly shot down in recent years."

I haven't heard much of their Chinese contacts, but those Russians yearning for old glory concerns me.

The article clearly says that it was an 'electronic ambush' that brought the spy drone to the ground. That is far more significant than anything else, because it shows how capable Iranians are in taking over drone controls. US should be smart enough and avoid any further provocations (violating Iran's sovereign air space is a serious provocation).

"The chief of the aerospace division of Iran's powerful Revolutionary Guards, Gen. Ami Ali Hajizadeh, said Iranian forces brought the aircraft down with an electronic ambush, causing minimum damage to the drone."

Read the article before writing about it.

On a more serious note, what does it say about our technological advantage in the world when Iran can electronically ambush a drone. Aren't we smart enough to have a self-destruct built in if it loses contact with the carrier wave that's controlling it? We did in the 50s and 60s with the rockets we were launching. Either this is a hoax, or we really have gotten lazy.

the question is...WHY are these drones, equipped with the latest spy tech, not equipped with a self destruct mechanism. if they are not they should be!

just noticed same question in next part of thread posted by ruken

I suggest that US adds some fireworks to the display.

Cavalier... about 80% of all research dollars spent in US is related to defense, as compared to less than 10% in Europe. Despite all this wonderful investment in killing people, we still sometimes fail. US spends more on the defense than the rest of the world combined. We saw the enemy and it is us... or more precisely: US industrial military complex.

Don't ever under estimate your opponent ...

just because the Iranians have different cultural values & approach propaganda a different way .... don't think they are ignorant or stupid ... they are not...

the statement made " Gen. Ami Ali Hajizadeh, said Iranian forces brought the aircraft down with an electronic ambush, causing minimum damage to the drone." has a ring of truth to it ... considering that unofficial statements out of Washington ... said they just lost control of it.

And you really think they did this alone ? lol ... probably not, there are a lot of governments that would quietly help ... in order to get their hands on the technology ... when you keep reaching into the cookie jar on the sly ... your gonna get caught ... and we did ....

Now what happens to the drone program? If the Iranians (with the help of others) did do a "Electronic Ambush" ..... all drones are going to be vulnerable to similar attacks ... and our advantage is gone in that area ..

I hope they don't waterboard the drone.

Michael"

The CIA's:failures have been so atrocious over the past 15 years that I am starting to question just who they are working for.

Three Words: Osama Bin Ladin.

You don't like the CIA? Then have fun in a world without it. Every country has their spy branch. For every "failure" in the last 15 years, I can guarantee that there have been an exponentially higher number of successes-- most of which you will probably never hear about. Think about it-- would the CIA telegraph their successes to the media, thereby revealing their methods and capabilities? I think not. Think man. You hear about their failures because they are failures. You won't hear of their successes unless it is of national public importance, like OBL's death.

Evidently many Americans have no problem with their gov't-military-coporate complex breaking laws at the same advocating killing Iranians with nuclear weapons. No wonder the US gov't is so dysfunctional and is owned by an upper 1% given that kind of sociopathic cheerleading section.

Its all Bush's fault...

Can you imagine the media if he were in office? Where is the out cry now?

I find all of the hand-wringing over the loss of this, and evidently other, drones amusing....So, Iran figured out how to electronically take over a glorified RC plane with an advanced Nikon camera aboard....

..Does anyone really believe they couldn't buy the parts to make a drone identical to this online somewhere?....Come on....Really?....

Granted, to Iran anything that is more complicated than a hand-held calculator is a windfall, but in the grand scheme of things, is it so hard to imagine that our 'state of the art' tech is constantly evolving, or it doesn't stay 'cutting edge' for long....We develop it, others try to copy or steal it, and by then we are beyond it.....

Reminds me of the B-29s that made emergency landings in the Soviet Union during WWII....After the war, the USSR was so proud of their 'new, advanced bombers' that they didn't even realize the bomber they copied and rushed into production included combat repairs to the outer surfaces and a 'homemade' book shelf the navigator (or radior operator) had installed for himself.....Also, can anyone say 'Buran'?...Remember the Soviet 'space shuttle' that only lacked the US flag and catchy names we gave them?...

Same thing, different day...

Get Real

Bush was criticized for torturing KSM 180 times to get info and he is healthy, while Obama was praised for executing Bin Ladin and the American Citizen in Yemen Awlaki. Don't get me wrong, these terrorists are all scum and deserve the worst treatment possible, but think of the double standard.

It doesn't have a 3-d Halliburton hood sticker on it!? Or a McDonalds "M" on it, I'm questioning if it's the real thing! Seriously, when did our secret project's become a public debate?? I don't care what the C.I.A. is doing, neither should any of you! Just pick up your STARBUCKS in morning, while your on your APPLE phone, driving your PRIUS! Most Iranian's are hucking down some pond water, on a string/can telephone, driving a mule drawn cart!! Go back to your X-box'..............drone's

not having self-destruct on board is a lack of planning, lack of intelligence, lack of basic common sense and a overblown feeling of superior technology; in the computer world any country can come up with equipment to jam others signals.

Max^108 #1.28,

And what did Ike warn us about ?

I have read all the comments about a self-destruct mechanism... I would go one better and have a really, really, really big surprise for anyone who got control of my drone. Read into that what you may.

You know...If you really look at the picture and compare it to other photos of the actual drone, it looks kinda fake.

Sort of a clay model. All the edges are really soft, not angled as in the real photos.

Just a thought.

I know military leadership arrogance, but to not have thought this through and handed over a pristine sample of even low tech is absolutely careless. Roll some big heads - I can do more remote damage to my iPad if it's stolen.

I don't know about the SELF destruct ...but I saw a guy last night talking on the tube about these drones..he said it was his impression that they have an "auto homing" system that is supposed to send it back to a predetermind base if it losses certain guidance command ability...don't know if that is indeed fact but it does seem like a simple , plausibe solution to problems , of course it does not seem to have worked in this instance if it is true

I MADE THAT DRONE model!...and send flew it over there from my living room...what these cave dwellers have failed to realize is that it is made ENTIRELY OF PORK!

I don't know but to me when I watched this video and the one guy was talking it looked as if they were in a very cold building because of the warm air clouds coming off his mouth.

Why would they be in such a cold building where there is something that is made up of electronics and what have you.

I know that these drones are made to fly at high altitudes but why would they be in such a cold area?

Then by the looks of light coming into the building it would seem there at ground level yet the building would appear to be very cold....Mmmmm?

Just curious.

brendan-4 - if you watch the video the entire drone is almost complete, debunking the theory that they shot it down..

Military Man-1740371,

When this first happened and everyone (including on Newsvine) denied this could happen (Superior US Technoloy), I explained the means. The transmitter and receiver gets "burned". The RQ goes into autopilot and lands. I also mentioned how the Taliban, Al Quada, Hamas Foreign Fighters, Islamic Chechen Foreign Fighters, etc. use low tech or no tech methods to defeat MQs and RQs, you think they did not supply this information to those supplying them weapons, ammunitions, funds, etc., Fundamentalist Islamic Iran.

mdsj - None of this is comical. They clearly have nuclear scientists working on nuclear weapons. I am sure they have the ability to reverse engineer quite a bit of the technology. Dangerous.

The "Father of the Pakistanis Nuclear Weapons Program" has been at Iran for some time now.

Military Man-1740371 - I would be more concerned with China or Russia getting their hands on it,

The Chinese and Russian Federation have had their Military Advisors, Technicians, Weapons Technicians, etc. at Iran for a very long time. They have been providing them with weapons, ammunition, technical advisers, military advisers, etc.. The USSR (now Russian Federation) has been a Ally of Iran since the Iran Iraq Wars.

D McMillen - Would have been sweet to blow it up with a hellfire just as they were approaching it though.

This was a RQ not a MQ.

Joe ObamayerMama,

You will have do some real digging to prove tw1sted, Al718, wrong as usual. Al718, I was on the US Military Training Teams to US Ally Iraq during the Iran Iraq Wars, we were later rotated to Pakistan/Afghanistan to train the 1980s Pro US Afghan Muhajeen. The reason why the Iranians were suffering the loss of millions, was because they Purged all the Iranian Military Officers and NCOs that were loyal to the Shah, or even remotely loyal to anyone else except the Ayatollah, even quite a large number of their trained at the US F-14 maintenance personnel were executed along with their families and relatives. They had their Islamic Believers (no training nor experience) pushing them into Combat. During this time we would train the US Ally Iraqis Military in interlocking machinegun fires, range charts, final protective fires, etc. after training them we would accompany them into Combat, to make on the spot corrections or to make observations to make changes to training the Iraqis.

To this day I still can visualize the hundreds of thousands of Iranians in Wave Attacks being mowed down by the interlocking machinegun fires, supported by mortar fires, sometimes I still have the nightmares of this and can hear the screams of the few, and the dead in piles (could not see the ground). The Iraqis would cease fire to allow the Iranians to pick up their wounded, usually the Iranians would just shoot their wounded in the head for failing to overrun us. Some of these "Iranians" were actually some of the Pro USSR Afghans that fled Afghanistan during the USSR 40th Army Occupation, as the USSR did not care which Afghans they massacred, Pro US or Pro USSR, during the USSR Total Conventional War (USSR believed back then Chemical Warfare was Conventional Warfare, their use of Agent Purple, Mustard Gas, etc.) as to why almost half of the Afghan Population as Pro USSR fled into Fundamentalist Islamic Iran, when they returned to Afganistan they became the later Fundamentalist Islamic Taliban. During our time at Iraq we had unlimited access to everything, including the Iraqis Nuclear Facility bombed by the Israelis, our authority (Iraqis Documents) included being able to use our individual weapons if deemed necessary on just about anyone (Diplomatic Immunity).

Al718, the Iraqis did not have the capability to develop or make the Chemical Weapons as used against the Iranians when the Iraqis started to lose and the Iranian Military started to actually invade Iraq. Nor did the Iraqis have the Chemical Weapons capability to develop or make the Chemical Weapons used against the Armed (men, women, children) Allies of Iran, the Kurdistanis. The use of Iraqis Chemical Weapons ended the very long Iran Iraq Wars, and saved millions of lives on both sides. And that is baloney, that they wore suicide vests (they did not use them at that time), and they were armed by the USSR, so your "and no guns at all" is non factual. At this time, the USSR Spetsnaz "Hunter Killer Teams" were hunting us (US Military Training Teams), as to how one of my Subordinate Officers got shot by a USSR SVD, and ended up being evacuated to LARMC (Landstuhl Army Regional Medical Center), and survived to later become my current Operations Officer here (Afghanistan)(yes, we are that old, as involuntarily recalled to Active Duty again and again and again, destroying our Civilian careers, less than 8 months and we will be "Too Old" to ever be involuntarily recalled again.). Before I got involved with US Military Asymmetric Warfare "Middle East" Qualified language Farsi, then Arabic, I was trained Conventional Munitions (also course writer), Missiles (also course writer), Nuclear weapons (was also an Instructor), biological weapons (epidemiology, USAMRIID), chemical weapons (Maryland, practical experience use and storage), and was later stationed with the Intermediate Range Nuclear Forces (INF)(including Chemical Weapons). Between numerous (long) deployments to the Middle East, Africa, Asia, etc. I would get reassigned to the Intermediate Range Nuclear Forces. After the Intermediate Range Nuclear Forces were retrograded (I was also involved in the retrogrades Nuclear and Chemical, planning Operation Steel Box and Golden Python (Hint)).

JM California - Why didn't the drone self destruct? Why can't the US miltary send a self destruct signal?

Burnt out transmitter receiver.

Republic! - Remember how everyone was claiming Iraq had WMDs?

READ, Section 2 "Findings" of US Law, 1998 H.R.4655 "Iraqis Liberation Act of 1998", Justification Weapons of Mass Destruction. (Scroll down on the link).

H.R.4655 Iraq Liberation Act of 1998

http://209.157.64.200/focus/f-news/1057063/posts

Like I said before after the lesser means of H.R.4655 failed to "Liberate the Iraqis People" by Overthrowing President Hussein, US Congress used the Final Option, the US Military, by Declaring War Against Iraq with US Law, 2002 Iraqi War Resolution.

Oh, yes, how about learning Farsi, and watching Fars on youtube.com (not the censored US version at brendan-4 link).

Every since President Obama gave Iran Carte Blanche to do what ever they wanted to do with his 2009 Improved Relations with Iran Policy, the Iranians can do whatever they want. This is the same reason that after General McChrystal was nominated by President Obama and confirmed by US Congress and finally got here, based on the captured weapons, ammunition, bomb making materials, funds, etc., General McChrystal stated that Iran was supplying weapons, ammunition, etc. to the Taliban, Al Quada, etc., so because this was against President Obama's 2009 Improved Relations with Iran Policy, General McChrystal received his first Letter of Reprimand from President Obama.

I find it so f**king amazing how most of you can defend that level of (derogatory expletives), as sure you are thousands of miles away and have NO personal stake as to what is happening while stuffing your obese arse with a Big Mac and Supersized Fries (and being a hypocrite) while ordering a extra large diet soda, while we here (Afghanistan) have to put up with all the micro management by Politicians that are also thousands of miles away stuffing their faces with surf and turf, caviar, champagne. And worst of all, you don't f**king listen to us. (Flips middle finger) less than 8 months and most of us will be "Too Old" to ever be involuntarily Recalled to Active Duty over and over again. So this will be YOUR TURN to fix the f**k ups of the US Politicians and the US Civilians that hired them).

Keep underestimating what Iran has already done. I previously posted what Iran has done in previous Newsvine Posts, if you want to know then look up the posts, if you are too lazy too f**king bad you spend a few decades at the Middle East, Africa, Asia, etc., after you learn Farsi, Arabic, Islam, etc. and live with the locals (years of consecutive tours).

Oh, yes, to all those that keep saying that you read something somewhere or Wikipedia said it is true (sh!t written by non participants based on information from other non participants), LOL. Go see for yourself during the unforgiving life or death School of Hard Knocks.

There is another strange part of this location that I noticed in the video, like the material murals on the walls they don't appear to be moving as to indicate that there is any kind of high flowing air conditioning blowing in this facility.

Then you look at the front nose of the drone as the one guy is standing in front to the side of it you can see what appears to me like sun light shining across him and the drone.

Then in the corner you see what looks like some kind of mechanics tool bench or maybe not.

This location by its first appearance looks like some kind of gym yet the walls are made of some kind of chiseled stone.

The location setting is somewhat odd when you look at these small things in the video.

Anyways its just my view and PO on this video so what the hell right?

Perhaps this was done to throw anyone off about where the video was taken, but in my PO they kind of gave away some telling hints.

Later

Gravity is the main cause of aircraft falling...Nuke the planet...That would fix this.

actually gravity "pushes" things to the earth...the rest of your post stands intact...hahaha

Harry,

"pushes" really? Are you putting the cart before the horse?

According to Dr. E everything moves in a straight line (spatial vector). It is the line that is curved.

No push, no pull, nice and simple.

hmmm...you may be right...or not according to that white haired asian physicist dude on the Discovery Channel...hahaha

but then Dr E. just got pimp slapped by nuetrinos traveling faster than the speed of light...............twice..............science isn't much of an "exact science" is it?

Hold on, the neutrino thing is not over yet. Twice by the same team and setup. They only shorten the pulse length, which by the way was one of my observations as early as Sept, first postings on the vine. The jury is still out.

If you go through the setup you too will find it very messy, too many active components in series. They are only guessing on the total deviation of the measurement. Human error in the final anaylsis, I am sure.

They have been trying to knock Dr E of his pedestal for over hundred years now, but he is still numero uno!

haha..I am not "sold" yet on anything ...but you have to admit , they have to keep knocking on his pedestal in order to disprove things , or even to backup his theories...it's a helluva ride isn't it?

Yes indeed. In a way we have failed the great master by not being able yet to prove or disprove his theories.

A lot of the blame falls on Congress, since 1958 when they pass the NASA Act they put all the emphasis on human spaceflight, spending most of the resources, both human and money, on a single aspect of space exploration.

We would have been much further ahead if only a fraction of those resources were spent on real science. The LHC and JWST would of been on their last days of operation and bigger and better colliders and telescopes ready to replace them.

Congress and Presidents are only good at big show projects for their own political advancement. The US governance has lost its way and is becoming a risk, itself, to national security and interests.

Vote all the bastards out in 2012 and start fresh.

PS, Sorry for turning it to politics but I am pissed.

Well the reason neutrinos aren't really faster than light is because they never experience the speed of light, which turns matter into energy and you can't move energy so it stays at the speed of light. Faster than the speed of light (C + 1) is impossible because it stops at C but if you have (C-1)*2, therefore it is faster than light, but not stuck in the constant speed of photons. Think of the speed of light as a fence. Once you reach it, you cant advance (add) but you can jump (exponents) or go around (multiply) it.

Just common sense, hahaha. Anyways, the drone looks like it was modified specifically for missions in Iran. The edges were removed to absorb radio waves and the small size was to emit smaller heat signatures. Also, a herder in the middle of the desert would be very concerned by a US drone with a 70 foot wingspan flying around his country.

You guys must play Dungeons and Dragons too...LOL...Over my head.

Peace

Maybe it does have a self destruct and they are just waiting for enough senior Iranian engineers to be around before activating it.

Ooooo. An explosive new story to emerge from Iran tomorrow perhaps?

However, have you seen the story about the explosion at one of their nuclear facilities? Seems they blow themselves up without any help from us.

For sure; no "self-destruct on fault" command? and i thought the GOP was a clown-show! it is too far a streach of the imagination, this was a deliberate gift to a would be nuke-nation and now they have the delivery system.

How would the self destruct work? Remote ignition? Anything that could potentially be done remotely by us can be done remotely by an enemy who hacks it, thus bringing down anything with a remote self destruct. So, then you have consider a system that allows the plane to destroy itself. Self thinking systems are bound to glitch, and may accidentally detonate itself unintended. Then there's the possibility of a device losing power, and is totally unable to send a signal to the explosive. Batteries you say? How often do batteries die and need recharging? How often does human error neglect to check the batteries? Even a disciplined, well maintained fleet like the US military often has fubars from human oversight. Finally, self destruct mechanism would be seen as a bell and whistle luxury on one of these devices. These things are designed by the lowest bidder at the lowest costs and weight, and these types of bells and whistles are usually what gets jetisoned in the planning.

Last thing, as high tech and secretive as our media makes these drones sound, the reality is that they've been around at least a decade now, and this is older technology. The time it would take China, Russia, Iran to duplicate would still have them 20 years behind like everything else, and we'd be sitting on new secret tech that could detect and shoot down anything they reproduce of ours.

If they could hack the signals controlling the drone it means the engineers used terrible encryption. Either way, the engineers and military personnel who thought it was ready to go are at fault for this.

If you have the money and know-how to build a stealth drone, you have the know-how to make a way to blow itself up when it's compromised.

Did you think its possible that the US wanted them to find it? It very well could be that there is something on board that the Russians or the China Commies will mimic that will allow the US to track their stealth drones. I mean lets be honest the Commies steal our designs as it is, its time that they we give them a flawed design on purpose.

hmmmmmmmmmm

As long as the electronics are destroyed, the aircraft itself is no big secret.

I think the stealth coating is a bit of a secret though.

That jelly solution cannot land in the wrong hands. If they learn that the stealth coating is a mixture of bodily fluid and seal fat we'll be doomed.

Cygnus......you are the only one that I've seen post here that seems to be thinking. I believe that 'blastng 'electronic signal in a 'shotgun-like' approach across a wide spectrum could probably trigger the self-destruct.

That wouldn't be anywhere near as dificult as designing and deploying equipment to take over its systems.

Should be like the Trojan Horse story. Self destruct with a mini nuke built in it when they start messing with it....

Drop a bomb where it is being kept. An unmarked bomb of course.

hey doesnt this whole thing sound a little fishy, i mean to we really need the drones to spy what about the satellites, arent the drones for battlefield opps. and the satellites for spying?

why isnt Obama claiming this one , like he did with the Osama opp. , didnt he have to ok this one to?

These people can't duplicate anything

These people can't duplicate anything

Except terror and mindless followers of radical extremism.

.......I stand corrected

Cygnus_X-1

Last thing, as high tech and secretive as our media makes these drones sound, the reality is that they've been around at least a decade now, and this is older technology. The time it would take China, Russia, Iran to duplicate would still have them 20 years behind like everything else, and we'd be sitting on new secret tech that could detect and shoot down anything they reproduce of ours.

That's irrelevant. The fact that we aided someone who otherwise wouldn't have access to such information is the problem. Older tech or not, it is technology that is currently being used. It's sad when folks assume because you see a culture that appears backwards to you, you automatically think they don't have the ability to build sophisticated equipment.

Technical information gets aroud the world very fast today. We are 60 years late in working for real disarmerment. This has banktupted our people and enriched the war mongers. Why is it so difficult to see that our agressive militarism is a path to disaster?

We've had "the bomb" for 65 years....Russia followed us a few years after we made our first bombs, because they had the other half of the genius German scientists that we didnt get. After that, it took half a century for anyone else to figure out how to do it, despite the recipe being available online and in every physics class in college. So, if these backwater countries can't figure it out when it's right in front of them, I doubt they'll glean much from some destroyed parts. Russians might make more from it, but they've already figured out stealth. The Chinese, Iranians, Syrians, N.Koreans will just copy whatever the Russians come up with, years down the line. Technology is no secret. Eventually someone else will figure it out, either through trial and error, or through theft.

Cygnus_X-1,

Keep tying with the common sense, eventually you too will start to get pissed and wonder what happened to the Failed US Education System. Then they will start calling you names.

Anyway as far as Maintenance most of that is done by US Civilians that believe their job is 9 to 5 (4:30).

As far as "copying" US Stealth or US Technology, the Iranians can buy that from the Chinese and Russian Federation, same way they have been buying "Advanced" weapons systems. example: North Korean copy of the Chinese copy of the USSR SS-18 ICBM, as shipped thru Bejing China 2010. In 2011, Iran used one of these to launch a monkey into orbit, 15x, proving that this is a true ICBM capable of attacking anywhere on Earth, by using Earth Rotation to traverse the distances. It is believed that the GNC (Guidance Navigation and Control) is manufactured by the Chinese of stolen US Technology (GPS, and independent backup internal digital technology (actual term is classified, even if the Chinese and Russian Federation have already had this. The actual CEP is also classified (for no real reason))).

As far as R&D, by having this example they do not have to repeat all the previous mistakes to develope this technology. As mentioned before, since these Nations, Iran, Chinese, Russian Federation still take people out and execute them for Contract Defaults, Fraud, Crimes Against the People, with minimal Politicians requiring them to build/manufacturer in their States, they get the most out of every penny they spend, that would take the US spending a dollar for every penny they spend. At the US, instead of punishing the US manufacturers, they are rewarded with Out of Court Settlements so that they do not tie up the Contracts for years in the US Courts, then the US can contract someone else to build or manufacturer (and might still end up not getting what was paid for (again)).

I agree!!!!!!!!!!!!!

People that dont watch Mission Impossible movies or Inspector Gadget. Their is encryption on the electronics. But I am sure they did shoot it down. They even said Just that they used electronics to Jam it and it eventually ran out of fuel as opposed to conventional missiles. If they can jam and hack. They can also take over any self destruct method. Would work great right as Americans were working with them to have them start exploding and killing Americans.

Even tho chopper that went down in the OBL raid had to be manual destroyed. Between that and the drone. The Chinese are having a field day

READ POST#2.4

If you read the story, they lo0st the data link. No one "crashed it".

Mim Jac: I am part of the MIT community...there are VERY few Iranians at MIT (if any), not sure where you got your info, but it's not true.

Doug....You state 'are', what about 'were'?

READ POST#2.4

READ POST#2.4

The republicans have never seen a defense spend they ddin't like...funny how no dollar spent on defense is wasted but there is 20% waste everywhere else...

Okay, which idiot failed to activate the self-destruct button!!!

Amused In The Midwest,

President Obama's April 2009 Defense Budget Cut of the USAF and USN.

RickRAC, read post #2.4. you too Amused In The Midwest

Might I add that according to the Iranians the aircraft was picked up some 140mi west of the Afghan border. Cause apparently your crack team of journalists can't head over their state media outlets and cross check your @!$%#.

Even if they jammed the feed, you think you'd have some sort of programming on the device where it could recognize that it has been compromised and destroy itself.

Hacked, or shot down, there's no excuse. It should have been better protected.

Again, read the story. When it loses the link, it is programmed to return to the base or a safe area. that malfunctioned.

And what I am saying is that in an event of a malfunction it should've destroyed itself. Especially when the malfunction happens over an area where you're probably not going to get it back.

If the Iranians detected it, apparantly it wasn't very stealthy or they are tuned into the control signals. In which case it should have been using frequency hopping.

From what I gathered they didn't attack the drone, they electronically attacked the satellite station controlling it., causing the connection to fail and the drone to just go haywire. Just my interpretation though.

Iran lies not matter what, I'll never trust them on anything. But I believe the stupidity of the CIA, just as I believe the stupidity of the ATF selling guns to Mexican cartels so we could "Track" them.

All governments lie. The government of Iran is not special in this regard.

Or they got a toy plane with fried electronics.

Im sure our homeless vets and many other hurting Americans are soo glad we can afford countless billions for destruction. There is nothing like being safe on the streets, especially in the winter time.

How about a preset independant timer that intiates within minutes when no signal occurs or a loss of encoded control.

Or just any computer logic at all that can analyze the situation without the connection? It's terrible design work.

They should come equipped with a kill switch.

The US absolutely lied...and no one seems to care. Initially, this was an Afghan drone that veered off course. When it became apparent that that story wasn't plausible, they admitted that we do perform Iranian overflights.

This is not okay! But if we don't care, the government will just keep doing what they do.

Cover up, lies after lies. They are saying that it's an old technology because it got shot down by david with a sling shot. Contractors on this project are jumping hoops right now on what to lie before congress so their project money will not be stopped. Tax payers are paying for their lack of intelligence about our enemy's capability of shooting down this bird.

Most of the time we understimate our enemy. LIke the Iraq war, Rumsfield said that: Our military will set up base in Kuwait, get in and in three months or less the war will be over, that is why GWBush celebrated on the deck of one of the carrier with the BIG banner behind him saying "MISSION ACCOMPLISH" but we were not aware on how they gonna fight us inside their territory. Just to name one, IED.

We will not win against this ragheads nor other muslim insurgents the way we fight now, life is nothing for them. They rather die and be with their 27 virgin males bending over waiting in their gay a$$ paradise. You wanna win? For me? level them off and answer question later.

Oh yeah Louis, level them for doing what?

wxmanrocks- "...isn't there a provision built into equipment such as this that allows us to destroy the sensitive equipment inside remotely" ?

This was my very first thought when I heard of this story. There has to be something. Of course Iran isn't going to admit it if that was the case.

Be cool if it did have a massive bomb hidden somehow, and can be activated when the President of Iran is posing with it for pictures. Kind of a Trojan Horse, "gottcha".