US spy drone
 

Since Giccin didn't start this yet here we go. So what really happened to the US spy drone. It sure doesn't look like it was shot down or crashed. Did Iran really hack it and land it?

http://www.csmonitor.com/World/Middl...anian-engineer

The software has been a problem for the drones for years. I'm not surprised if it were hacked, but this claim by the Iranians seems a little bogus. I've read that the drone on Iranian tv was a fake :iono:.

IMO there's no way that Iran "hacked into" the drone and landed it themselves. Just getting into the encrypted satellite signal in order to take the thing over would be a major task in itself. To then be able to control it without prior knowledge of the software and hardware being used to fly the aircraft would be a miracle. If Iran had prior knowledge to be able to do this then we have much bigger problems than losing the one drone to them.

I think the most likely scenario is that we lost communications with the drone and could no longer control it (whether or not it veered off course from Afghanistan or we were intentionally flying it in Iranian airspace is probably something we'll never know). There was probably some type of fail safe programmed into the drone that told it to land if it was out of communication for a period of time, fuel was running out, or some other set parameters were met.

I doubt Iran/Russia/China are going to learn as much from it as all the doom and gloom people are predicting as a lot of the secrets to creating the technology is in the manufacturing rather than the items themselves. I think the biggest gain for them militarily is they now have a real life example of what their radar and search equipment should be looking for so now they can more easily tune what they already have.

US 'let' Iran hack it and it is a honey-pot with more sabotage soft-ware stuff in it, like that worm.

What about a few months ago when the drone fleet was hit by the virus? As the public we don't know the extent of that, but at least we can tell the drone fleet has been under "cyber attack" from someone. http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2011...s-drone-fleet/

The article I posted above is long but very interesting. Hard to tell how much of the info is legit.


A trojan horse? I like it. :)

I can't believe they actually shot down one of OUR airplanes in their airspace. Total act of WAR. ;)

Stuxnet has already been working its way through the Iranian nuclear program, but it hasn't done as much damage as the US has hoped it would. This is why we're getting all the reports that the Iranian nuclear program is still progressing and they've been saber rattling with their threats to try and close the Straight of Hormuz.

The official release about the "virus" was that it was simply a keylogger that didn't affect the systems in the drones. Whether or not that's true, we probably won't find out. However, I find it highly improbable that they would continue to fly them all in the middle east knowing that there was malicious software still installed that could compromise the missions.

This is the US provoking Iran into war. Just watch, late 2012 will lead to an Iranian War.

Anyone who doesn't see this is just blind. We have airbases surrounding Iran from all sides and the greedy want the oil...

Agreed.

Iran should have the right to do as they please on their land. Israel has 300+ nukes, we don't need to protect them from Iran.

Just based on the picture itself, it *looks* like a mock-up model of the actual plane. Just look at the wing and see the thickness of it. It looks more like a baloon toy of airplane than the actual plane to me, and there is no where to be seem about the *stealth armor* that covers the plane.

I wonder if this is just a propaganda from Iran about this.

Last thing to say: if the spy drone is so secretive, why don't CIA add some self-destruct mechanism to blow things up if things happen?

The color of the drone would have matched the surrounding area just like camouflage for day time operations.

The US did acknowledged they have one of our top drones.

Because that 20+ pounds of explosives adds unnecessary weight which could be used for fuel, or other spying equipment all for the unlikely risk of this incident.

It is just curious that the drone has no physical damage to it like you would expect if it crashed from 25-30,000 ft or if it was shot down. I guess it could just be propaganda on their part.

Well there are a few difference possibilities.

The drone is an airplane, and airplanes are made to be stable in flight. Turn off the computer and it could just very well glide and softly crash with a minimal rate of descent.

Other possibilities include Iran actually having lots of interactions with US drones in the past and hacking into systems to gain information needed to actually control a drone.

:thumbsup: Agreed, until they are a direct threat to us let their neighbors handle it.

The drone wouldn't have "stealth armor", the material used to create the skin along with the paint used are what absorb the radar signals. The information coming out of Iran is very much propaganda.

It clearly wasn't shot down or crashed, the fact that Iran hasn't shown the bottom of the drone would suggest that it was landed, but probably without landing gear, or at the very least not on a runway.

The drone is an airplane, however it's a flying wing design similar to the B2 stealth bomber. This type of aircraft without a tail fin or horizontal stabilizers require sophisticated computers to make minute adjustments to the control surfaces in order to keep the aircraft in the air. If the on board computer had failed it may have gone into a flat spiral and hit the ground, but there's no way it simply glided in for a landing.

I'm going to disagree with you on that one, its a possibility, however I used to own a R/C glider that was a single wing just like the drone that flew perfectly without any inputs.

I guess its all speculation...

It may be a possibility, obviously technology has advanced since the design and construction of the B2's. Pretty much anything we come up with regarding how the drone went down is going to be speculation. Any info coming from Iran is going to be propaganda and any information from our own government is going to be cleaned up to omit any classified information.

I didn't know about this until... now. Lol

I was watching NBA clips. O_O

Conspiracy possibility #2: Drone electronics and structure is filled with fancy GPS transmitters, and when the Iranians dis-assemble it and take the parts to now-formerly-secret R&D facilities, Mossad will, um... totally not blow those up either, like that rocket facility that they, er... had nothing to do with.

US, UK and Israel are f'ing with Iran rather hard.

I mean the US couldn't be that dumb to allow one of their new (less than 2 yrs old) stealth spy drones really get captures by the bad guys? Right? I mean we have more faith in our military and intelligence services than that? Or maybe they really are that inept sometimes?

We have hundreds of drones flying over there. I am really not surprised this happened.

You are giving the government too much credit and we most likely already know all of those locations...

So then this must be calculated as part of their risk assessment when using the latest technology in certain parts of the world? In other words, they must have realized this could potentially happen one day and if it did they would be ok with it? Otherwise wouldn't they want to protect that information (even if it is the build process) from getting into Iran's hands and eventually in Chinese and Russian hands?

Probably sometimes, but also fantastically devious most of the other times. And this combination will mean that their opposition will have to question everything that happens. Is this a trap or do they now have access to the latest and greatest US tech to reverse-engineer? No Admiral Ackbar (sp? the Star Wars guy...) to warn them.

For example, in the olden days the US blew up a huge section of the USSR's natural gas pipeline or a refinery or something like that. How they did it was that there was a known mole in a Canadian energy company who managed to get a hold of some 'latest and greatest' valves or something. But it was planned and had an engineered-in design flaw that had a life of a few years. So, the Soviets technically blew up their own pipeline.

Stuff like this is old news for the CIA. So who knows what this drone situation really is?

It's not like this is super secret alien technology. Russia and China already have stealth technology. What else can they learn? How our cameras work?

The only major concern is what type of spying capabilities we have but even that is not too big of a concern.

I'm more concerned that WE ARE FLYING DRONES IN ANOTHER COUNTRY

+1 Having first hand experience, I'm not surprised when stories of governmental ineptitude surface.

I'm 99% certain that this possibility was known during the risk assessment phase of the mission. The big problem was when the president passed up on multiple options he was given in order to destroy the drone and keep it out of Iran's possession.

I have a hunch that the lens and camera technology utilized to get detailed pictures of installations from 50k feet are pretty advanced, and more than likely classified.

Yes about the lens and I'm sure the propulsion and avionics are classified.

Why can't everyone just be friends?

Not really, it's not as if it's carrying a DSLR. It's just a combination of a very large lens and a very large sensor. Much too bulky/heavy to be practical on the ground, but in a plane with an ~85' wingspan it works just fine.

Definitely the avionics, but the engines are plain-jane turbofans that have been around forever. It's the same engine that's used on the A-10 actually.

Greed.

Ok. I was thinking more inlines with exhaust signature (infrared) and possibly noise reduction.

GE engine also used in S-3. The Garrett is also used on Cessna and Learjet.

I agree.
And if you dare say something against the government the gov can simply say.. "National Defense Bill."

"You are a suspected terrorist."

*Detain in a U.S Concentration camp*

Absurd? Never! You can leave nothing implied out. Anything is possible... with the American Government. Lol

Yup even US citizens can be sent to Gitmo

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011...etention-obama

I'm going to stay out of this, but two things I will say is to never underestimate a opponent, no matter how unlikely it may seem. And US is not the only place where people may obtain a education, so to assume someone in another country cannot reverse engineer a product, learn from it and make it better is also a mistake

And the CIA doesn't (well most of the time). And perhaps it was deliberately 'crashed' in Iran and they are expecting or even want them to reverse-engineer it.

Iran would do better with HumInt and getting access to the drone operators State-side. Which is another possibility of why it went down without too much damage. And this will give the US gov't more excuses to screw with rights.

I never understood why the US didn't go after religiously-controlled Iran in the first place. Iraq was secular for fucksakes...

True. But Iran has a better military and training than Iraq. Plus most countries in the middle east didn't like Saddam. While Iran might be troublesome, there might be many who like their hard stance (other middle east countries).

Saddam was massacring thousands upon thousands of innocent Shia Muslims, Ahmedinajad and Khamenei are not massacring their own people.

The only reason Iran is deemed so hostile is because they don't like the fact that Israel and the United States are always threatening them, so they talk back.

Just because they are under a Semi-Theocracy doesn't mean they need to be destroyed.

we are not protecting israel from iran. other way around. :slap:

How does that make sense? We are going to attack Iran, to protect them?

israel has all the big weapons. iran doesnt. israel can take care of itself but when they go to war....so do we. we are in a period right now where we do not want to go to war. so keep israel from fighting keeps us from fighting. i guess when i said "the other way around" was not entirely accurate and missleading. More of keeping israel out of a battle.

Um... 'elections' there?

But on the topic of justification, sure Saddam was bad. Was he related to 9/11? Nope. So why not pick Iran? The US had already kicked Saddam's ass, so now they kick it again, harder, and leave a power vacuum for Iran to fill? Not smart.

The problem of that Semi-Theocracy is that means it makes political policy based on religious principles. And those principles are constantly being distorted into 'become a martyr, kill the West'. You can often come to understandings with despots, but less so with zealots.