Slashdot Mirror
Iran Unveils Its First UAV Bomber
ms_gen writes "Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad unveiled today the first UAV bomber produced by Iran. The drone, named Karrar (farsi for Striker) can carry various types of bombs. It can reach up to 900 km/h in speed and has a range of 1000 kilometers (620 miles). The Iranian president mentions that 'Karrar is a symbol of the progress of defence technology in Iran.'"
It's called Persian. You don't go around saying "in espanol it's called..." do you?
THANK YOU! Here's a PDF that lays out some of the arguments against calling the language Farsi. We don't go around calling the English that people from Boston speak as "Bostonese", do we?
Best "String" Ever!
His behavior only appears to be irrational if you believe that either Israel would win a quick victory in a war with Iran by itself or that the US would quickly enter the fight to defend Israel in a war that it started against the express advice of the US. I don't think either is very likely to be the case. Iran clearly has a much higher tolerance for civilian casualties. They can accept casualties in the hundreds of thousands while the Israeli government could hardly survive if Israeli casualties reached the low thousands in an unprovoked war that it began without any immediate threat.
China is heavily dependent on Iranian oil. Both China and Russia would come out with uncompromising condemnations of Israeli aggression. The choice facing Obama would be to force an Israeli ceasefire or start World War 3.
it is a fairly obvious trap and it is highly unlikely that Israel is going to fall for it. The consequences would be catastrophic if it did.
Instead, Israel appears to be trying to invite a preemptive strike by Iran on Israel which would be disastrous for Iran for much the same reasons.
Looking for an Information Security student project suggestion?
Try http://dotcrimeManifesto.com/
This thing is a gimmick. It is a small cruise missile with remote capabilities. The bomb on it is a tiny little dumb thing that isn't going to hurt anyone unless it hits them directly, and I am going to go out on a limb and say that the avionics on that drone don't amount to much more than a camera bolted on. In defense against the presumed target, the US, this thing is a novelty. The US gets giddy over electronic warfare and this thing is asking have its connection severed. The fuel and explosives are better spent on a missile that doesn't bother to return home and doesn't need an operator to guide it in. This does nothing to help the defense of Iran against the style of combat the US uses.
If you are going to fight the US, and you are not China or Russia, you need to fight dispersed, hidden, and from cover. The only time it is worthwhile to fully stand and fight is if the victory you achieve is worth the destruction of the force you are having stand and fight. It is worthwhile to launch a massive simultaneous missile on a US carrier battle group with everything you have knowing that force will be destroyed. If you kill a carrier, the fact that you just destroyed your missile force is worth it. Outside of that though, you need to fight with the understanding that the US has the capability to glass the shit out of any arbitrary size of land using just conventional weapons. Your goal as the defender is to make it so that your forces are concealed and doing hit and runs, and so never standing around waiting to be glassed, or to fight from a position the US is unwilling to destroy. Namely, if you fight from a city the US won't level the city World War II style. They might knock down the buildings one by one trying to take out suspected military units, but the won't just level the place in one swipe like they could with a few MOABs. This glorified cruise missile doesn't help this style of fighting. It can't be launched by field units, and even if it could, it is going to lead the US back to your position assuming it even makes it back. You are better off to launch a missile that isn't expected to return or, even better, save the money to arm your city bound army with more and better RPGs.
Personally, if I had to organize the defense of Iran from the US, the only conventional forces I would bother with would be sea mines and easily concealed cruise missiles. The only point of those forces would be to try and sacrifice themselves in doing damage to the ocean going invasion force. The rest of my defense would involve the army stripping down into civilian clothing the second the invasion hits and dispersing into the population with a plan, and giving everyone a (civilians included) gun. Train the army in guerrilla tactics, cache weapons and explosives all over the place, and never even make the pretense of fighting with uniforms on. Encourage the civilians to fight in their own amateurish way not to inflict any real harm, but to blur the line between military and civilian in the eyes of the enemy as much as possible. The only military tech worthwhile would be the kind useful to guerrilla forces. Bike bombs, all manner of concealed explosives, easily concealed weapons, concealed body armor, methods of communicating across cells and receiving orders, methods of smuggling, modified civilian vehicles (that still look civilian) with military applications, and that sort of thing are the techs worth developing in earnest. You still need the capacity to fight a conventional war against your neighbors, but the real threat, the US, is a fight you don't want to do standing up. The US loves nothing more than to see massive troop formations all lined up nice and orderly in a big open desert. See Iraq War part 1 for what happens to armies that stand.
And a range of 620 miles? Isn't that about the distance between Iran and Israel? How sweet of them.
(This "coincidence" is the surest sign to me that it doesn't have nearly the claimed range.)
I won't join Slashcott. OTOH, If Beta goes live, I just won't be back until it's fixed. Sorry Dice.
I dont know how people believe this.
Israel doesn't want to take a shot at Iran. Knowing a few Israeli's the average Israeli doesn't want any more war, the government knows it's political suicide to start another war after what went down in Lebanon, still going down in the Palestinian territories.
The only people who think Israel is even considering a strike at Iran are the extremist right wing parties of the US.
If by everybody, you mean Fox News.
Now lets look at what's really happening. The Iranian's developed a reusable 60's era cruise missile, useless against the sophisticated defences of Israel, US, NATO, Russia and so forth. But Iran knows that the US, Russia, Israel, et al. will do nothing. What Iran is afraid of are pro-arab extremist groups from their immediate neighbours as well as a growing rift between Tehran and Damascus (Syria). People who have armed forces that are less technologically advanced then Iran's but are capable of waging an extended conflict with Tehran.
They are developing UCAV technology because its a cheaper way to fight a technologically inferior but more numerous foe which does not endanger hard to replace vehicles and pilots... Shock horror, just like everyone else who have developed UAV and UCAV technology.
Calling someone a "hater" only means you can not rationally rebut their argument.
The Taliban et al. have already figured all this out. So they don't play this game.
Instead of trying to defeat us by conventional means, they've chosen to give us an autoimmune disease, something like AIDS: First, they damage us slightly via one or more (usually few) terrorist vectors. The initial damage is not particular great, but it causes the rest of the body (i.e. the government and the public) to overreact.
All of the body's defenses (i.e. treasure) are focused on eliminating the agent, but the agent retreats into a place where the autoimmune system is ineffective (i.e. caves). The continuing effort begins to sap the body of energy necessary for maintenance of the rest of itself (education, infrastructure, etc.). Eventually, the body begins to decay such that the nervous system (government) begins to break down and the logical part of the brain begins to fail. Psychosis takes in as the body begins to give in to strong, vacillating emotions.
Eventually, other vital organs begin to fail, leaving it open to opportunistic diseases (massive debt and possibly graft). The final prognosis is not promising.