Drone in Iran

[TheGodfather]

A CIA operation somehow "loses control" of a drone and it lands in Iran unharmed.

Sounds like an inside job, but how high does it go? The military had the ability to destroy the drone by remote, but for some strange reason...didn't.

[SHMIV]

And, here I was thinking that that Beavis & Butthead episode was complete fiction...

[dorminWS]

Another "triumph" Obama WON'T take credit for. He's only responsible for killing binLaden and that other terrorist - not the collossal screwups that give away cutting-edge technology. How long will it take for the Iranians to give it to the Chinese, who will figure out a way to jam their signals and render them ineffective (or turn them against US)?

[widefat]

Maybe it contains a virus that will turn the Iranian leadership into a bunch of raging lunatics.

Oh wait....nevermind.

[OakRidgeStars]

Maybe this drone is really a new Stuxnet delivery system?.

[Kreutz]

Maybe this drone is really a new Stuxnet delivery system?.

I suspect this is along the correct lines. Very high(est?) tech drones dont just crash unharmed unless you want them to.

More to this than meets the eye. I'm sure the Iranians defense and nuclear systems computers are networked, because they're dumb enough to do that.

[Jakeiscrazy]

Iran's claim is the "shot" it down electronically. Some kind of radio jammer maybe? Seems really fancy from Iran.

[mamabearCali]

I see three maybe four options here

#1 It was a brilliant plan to some how infect Iran's infrastructure with something nasty (computer virus) while altering the plane in such a way that they will be deceived when they try to reverse engineer it. In that case

#2 We screwed up BIG TIME and not only did we lose track of a very expensive and failed to remote detonate the drone we gave Iran, China, and Russia our technology, . In that case on whoever screwed up.

#3 Iran got some sort of technology from a "friend" to bring down the drone. Some sort of jamming signal. Not too hard to believe.

#4 We have been had by espionage. Someone has gotten way far up in our military system and has sold us out. Terrifying absolutely terrifying.

[thekinetic]

They're trying to pick a fight with Iran, if they succeed say hello to WW3! Obama been at it for a while now and is terribly close to completing his nafarious agenda.

[mamabearCali]

I don't know that Pres. Obama has the political captial to spend on something like that. Additionally if we are not willing to turn Iran into a sheet of glass or a big hole in the ground (one of the two) we had better not get into a shooting war. These people are all or nothing so if we want to fight them we had better be too!

[Kreutz]

I don't know that Pres. Obama has the political captial to spend on something like that. Additionally if we are not willing to turn Iran into a sheet of glass or a big hole in the ground (one of the two) we had better not get into a shooting war. These people are all or nothing so if we want to fight them we had better be too!

True, people that have a Fountain of Blood ought not be messed with.

[OakRidgeStars]

Iran's claim is the "shot" it down electronically. Some kind of radio jammer maybe? Seems really fancy from Iran.

Not too fancy for the ChiComs, who could have easily provided Iran with this type of technology.

[gatlingun6]

1. The drone in question the RQ-170 was operated by the CIA, not our armed forces so they probably had no idea where it was, or what it was doing. That is, if it was a mission over Iranian airspace.

2. An operation to destroy the drone was called off as too risky. Since it involved potentially violating another country's sovereignty that was most likely, but not necessarily a national command Authority decision.

3. That we would not risk it leads me to believe as some web sites believe that follow this stuff, that the RQ-170 with the possible exception of the skin was not loaded up with the latest and greatest of our cutting edge technology.

4. Drone technology is moving so fast until this drone, if not obsolete now will probably be so in the near future. Again on those sites which are usually accurate you can find discussions about the next family of drones some of which that will stay aloft for weeks and months with unimaginable surveillance and communications gear, others as small as a flying bug, and others as heavily loaded as a fighter bomber. Fighter and bomber pilots inside a manned aircraft do not appear to be jobs of the future.

5. I have no idea why the self-destruct chain was not initiated, or if it was did not work. My guess is we'll never get a clear explanation on that score.

6. When the controlling link is broken the drone is programmed to fly in circles until control is re-established or it runs out of fuel. Once out of fuel it's programmed to glide to a landing. Since it's a wing gliding would work.

7. While technically anything is possible: It's highly unlikely that Iran hacked the drone. The first problem would be locating what is invisible to radar. They would have first have to know the drone was there (uh oh here's comes the new Ames spy story in the CIA). Then they would have had to intercept the link which cycles rapidly through a band that is not easily detected. After solving all that, they would have had to break the encryption code, which would require several super computers running in tandem. We know the Iranians do not have that capability, and we doubt that the Russians or Chinese have it either.

8. There is also a possibility involving powerful microwaves directed at the drone to bring it down, but that would involve a crash, and is really James Bond and Mission Impossible kind of stuff.

9. The last factor is the most important. The Iranians and our government are now involved in a deception campaign, so everything we read and hear about the incident should be cause for a raised eyebrow. In short, stay tuned, if you live for the next 50 years the incident should be declassified and all will know what really happened.

Gat6

[Palladin]

Thanks for that input, Gat6.

[Unkn0wN]

When this story first started hitting the news, I read an article that said that the RQ-170 is programmed to land safely if the link with the controller is broken. I just went to find that article, but can't remember on what site I read it.

So I took to the power of google.

This isn't the article I read, but it does mention that same thing.

." Because the craft appeared to be in one piece, the news agency said it "confirmed experts’ contention that the classified aircraft can be programmed to land safely if its communications link is lost."

That quote is can be found right in the paragraph above the youtube video

http://www.theatlanticwire.com/global/2 ... one/45991/


Also, someone asked why the self destruct wasn't initiated...

Experts and officials acknowledge that there is no self-destruct mechanism on the Sentinels, which are used both by the military and the CIA.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article ... craft.html