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Iranians say they shot down a US spy plane

RQ-170-Sentinel-picture.jpg

Here's what they claim to have shot down.
 
Here's what they claim to have shot down.

Actually it appears it was not shot down and landed itself, as it is programmed to do:

According to a senior U.S. military source with intimate knowledge of the Sentinel drone, the aircraft likely "wandered" into Iranian air space after losing contact with its handlers and is presumed to be in tact since it is programmed to fly level and find a place to land, rather than crashing.

U.S. Military Sources: Iran Has Missing U.S. Drone | Fox News
 
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Actually it appears it was not shot down and landed itself, as it is programmed to do:

U.S. Military Sources: Iran Has Missing U.S. Drone | Fox News

This makes more sense. There's no way Iran could "shoot down" the drone and it still be intact.

Still, this isn't such a big deal. The controls could be reverse engineered but would not provide any earth-shattering information. The materials and their machining are the real valuables and that's very hard to reverse engineer.
 
This makes more sense. There's no way Iran could "shoot down" the drone and it still be intact.

Still, this isn't such a big deal. The controls could be reverse engineered but would not provide any earth-shattering information. The materials and their machining are the real valuables and that's very hard to reverse engineer.

The materials and the machining are not that difficult if you have a starting point and a good level of general knowledge in that field to begin with. Iran does not have it, the Russians do, and so do the Chinese. Who may for the sharing of the techology may share knowledge with the Iranians. Realistically this falling into Irans hands is not an issue, the transfer of technology to Russian or Chinese can be.

Iran would be very hard pressed to duplicate the tech, Russia much less so, but China now could do a much better job then either
 
Unlikely. Russia has done a great job scamming the Iranians for as much as they can. Russia agrees to help them in some way, collects some money, and then backs out at the last minute. I don't think Russia wants a powerful Iran anymore than the US does, they just like to pretend they do so that they can rip Iran off.

An update

Russia has transferred a number of Kvant 1L222 Avtobaza Electronic Intelligence (ELINT) systems to Iran in October, RIA Novosti news agency announced. Each 1L222 system includes an passive ELINT signals interception system and a jamming module capable of disrupting airborne radars including fire control radars, terrain following radars and ground mapping radars as well as weapon (missile) data links.


Some reports are hinting about the role the Avtobaza system had in the alleged downing of U.S. stealth drone by the Iranian electronic warfare and air defense units early December
Kvant 1L222 Avtobaza Electronic Intelligence (ELINT) system | Defense Update
 
The materials and the machining are not that difficult if you have a starting point and a good level of general knowledge in that field to begin with. Iran does not have it, the Russians do, and so do the Chinese. Who may for the sharing of the techology may share knowledge with the Iranians. Realistically this falling into Irans hands is not an issue, the transfer of technology to Russian or Chinese can be.

Iran would be very hard pressed to duplicate the tech, Russia much less so, but China now could do a much better job then either

Yes, China and Russia would be much better at reverse engineering than Iran, but I still think both have had access to samples to stealth tech without actually being able to match it in a production aircraft. China already has it's own stealth aircraft but it looks to be far less capable than the F-22.
 
I'm not buying this story. Those things are set to self destruct if control is lost.

It's a drone aircraft, not an Imperial Probe Droid. As far as I know, when control is lost with a drone, they are usually programmed to fly a ciracular pattern in an attempt to require the control signal and then, failing that, find a safe landing place before fuel is exhausted.
 
Always Look on the Bright Side of Life. Iran will give the drone to China and you will all be able to buy a drone from Wal-Mart next Christmas.
 
I have no reason to doubt this is the real deal. Why else would the American government not be coming out and saying "that is not real"?

Has anyone seen pictures of it? Looks insanely well designed! Makes me think of Terminator


I am curious how some people can be so confident that Iran does not have the ability to reverse engineer this thing? They aren't a third world country...
 
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I have no reason to doubt this is the real deal. Why else would the American government not be coming out and saying "that is not real"?

Has anyone seen pictures of it? Looks insanely well designed! Makes me think of Terminator

I am curious how some people can be so confident that Iran does not have the ability to reverse engineer this thing? They aren't a third world country...

Iran will do or say just about anything to humiliate the US. It's priority number one for them. So I wouldn't put it past them to build a mockup and then claim they have the drone. It's also possible the real deal crash-landed in Iran whereupon they can claim they shot it down. Iran constantly says outlandish things to make themselves look tough. So I have many reasons to disbelieve their assertions.

Secondly, the materials are the most hi-tech part of the drone. It won't be hard for Iran to know it's coated by radar-absorbent paint. But how to make the paint is the real kicker. No doubt they'll know it's made with composites, but how you make and machine those composites takes decades to develop. Not every first-world country has this tech. Iran certainly doesn't have the materials science background to reverse engineer the most valuable bits. By the time they do the RQ-170 will be obsolete.
 
web-iran-drone__1351072cl-8.jpg


i9537a2f5999ca6b4d5e557c0f7220591_iran-drone.n.jpg


Not sure if this is it, but the pics seem interesting anyway.
 
Cryptome confirms that the video is real, but that the Pentagon has no comment on whether or not it is the actual drone or a fake and that they are looking into it.

Defense.gov News Transcript: DOD News Briefing with George Little and Capt. Kirby from the Pentagon
Presenter: Pentagon Press Secretary George Little and Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Media Operations Capt. John Kirby December 08, 2011
DOD News Briefing with George Little and Capt. Kirby from the Pentagon
GEORGE LITTLE: Good afternoon. Just a couple of announcements before we throw it over to questions.
The White House announced today that on Saturday President Obama, Vice President Biden and Dr. Jill Biden will attend the 112th edition of the annual Army versus Navy football game at FedEx field. I wanted to let you know that Secretary Panetta will also attend.
CAPT. JOHN KIRBY: Otherwise Navy versus Army.
MR. LITTLE: (Laughs.) More information will be forthcoming as it is available.
Also, the Air Force, at 4:00 this afternoon in the briefing room, will conduct a press briefing on issues related to Dover and other Air Force matters that you may want to ask about.
With that, I think that's it.
Lita.
Q: Acknowledging that this video only just came out and that you're probably still looking at it, can you give us at least an initial assessment as to whether or not the aircraft in the video is legitimately -- could be a Sentinel or not? And if so, can you give us any idea about whether or not you agree it could have landed somehow -- or somewhat intact?
CAPT. KIRBY: No. (Chuckles.) No, we're just not -- we've -- certainly we've had a chance to look at the images, and there are folks looking at them. But we're not going to comment beyond that.
Q: But --
Q: Do you -- do you believe the Iranians have the drone?
CAPT. KIRBY: Just -- we're not going to comment about this particular topic.
Q: But you did put out a statement last week saying you'd lost a drone, and you thought this might be it.
MR. LITTLE: We said, you know, all week that, you know, we did have a UAV go missing. But you know, when it comes to sensitive reconnaissance missions, we call them sensitive for a reason. So we're not going to add to what we said over the weekend.
Q: But don't you think you at least owe the public at least a general assessment as to whether we should reject out of hand that this is -- you know, that this is -- this could be one of these aircraft, if it's -- looks like a mock-up or a model or -- shouldn't there be at least some truth-telling here that would at least put some reality to the claims?
MR. LITTLE: I don't have anything to add to what John said.
And that is that we're not going to comment one way or the other at this -- at this stage.
Q: But to be clear on that, you're not -- you can't call this a fake; that you can't say categorically what the Iranians have put out is a fake.
MR. LITTLE: I'm not commenting at all.
Q: John, when you said that you have people looking at it right now, what exactly are they looking for?
CAPT. KIRBY: I just mean folks are -- you know, folks are obviously looking at the imagery as well, but -- and we certainly wouldn't even -- no matter what you might end up thinking about the imagery, I don't think you're going to -- you know, you're going to get confirmation one way or another here. I mean, we're just not going to talk about these kinds of missions and these kinds of capabilities.
Q: Why are military personnel looking at Iranian video of a CIA mission?
CAPT. KIRBY: I think it's -- I wouldn't characterize it just as military personnel looking. We've seen the imagery. There are folks that are looking at it. But again, we're just not going to get into the specifics of these particular kinds of missions. We're just not.
Q: You did acknowledge that a drone went missing in Iran. Was the president --
CAPT. KIRBY: No, we did not.
MR. LITTLE: We acknowledged that a drone went missing.
Q: OK. Was the president ever briefed on plans to retrieve or destroy the missing drone?
MR. LITTLE: I'm not going to comment on -- on that either.
Q: Is the drone you reported missing still missing?
CAPT. KIRBY: We haven't recovered the drone that we believe is missing.
Q: Have you asked anyone for it back?
MR. LITTLE: I'm unaware of any request for the return of a UAV that went missing.
Q: On that missing drone, what kind of latent data are you concerned that it possesses?
MR. LITTLE: I'm not going to comment on the specific capabilities and technical aspects of platforms that are tied to sensitive reconnaissance missions.
Q: Do you think that it might get in the wrong hands, the U.S. technology?
MR. LITTLE: Technology falling into the wrong hands? Well, separate and apart from this specific instance -- I'm not confirming anything -- when U.S. technology falls into the wrong hands, it's always a concern.
Q: Without giving us too much on the technology, can you say if this is a bigger deal than what was lost in the bin Laden raid with the helicopter tail? Is this more sensitive?
MR. LITTLE: I'm not going to make that kind of characterization here.
Q: And just a follow-up of that, Iranians have also claimed that this drone was used for a key -- (inaudible) -- raid. Do you have any comment on that claim?
MR. LITTLE: No.
CAPT. KIRBY: No, we don't.
[Balance of press session omitted.]

Pentagon on the Iranian RQ-170 Drone Capture
 
it looks like a completely intact RQ-170.

seems pretty stupid to not put a self-destruct mechanism in it.
 
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