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Iran Wants To Clone Downed US Drone
PolygamousRanchKid sends this quote from the LA Times:
"The Obama administration has sent a formal diplomatic request asking Iran to return the radar-evading drone aircraft that crashed on a CIA spying mission this month, but U.S. officials say they don't expect Iran will comply. 'We have asked for it back,' Obama said Monday at a news conference in Washington with Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri Maliki. 'We'll see how the Iranians respond.' His comments marked the first public confirmation that the RQ-170 Sentinel drone now in Iranian hands is a U.S. aircraft, though U.S. officials privately acknowledged that in recent days. Iran has claimed it downed the stealthy surveillance drone, but U.S. officials say it malfunctioned. Capture of the futuristic-looking unmanned spy plane has provided Tehran with a propaganda windfall. The government announced that it planned to clone and mass produce the bat-winged craft for use against its enemies."
Iran has also demanded an apology from the U.S. for the drone flight in its airspace.
It also takes balls to ask for an apology for receiving a very nice gift.
Iran has also demanded an apology from the U.S. for the drone flight in its airspace.
As they should. If I found some stealthy character in my backyard looking in on my wife, an apology is the LEAST I would demand.
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I'm sure their clone will be almost as good as mine, but probably not actually as good.
The important technology in the device is embedded in chips that are the most tamper resistant devices on the planet, they'll be utterly destroyed and unusable for reverse engineering well before they get anywhere near the tech.
The optics I'm sure are impressive, but not so much that they'll get some giant leap.
The encryption keys were worthless before the aircraft hit the ground.
The paint and fuselage material are the most important things on it that they can gather data from that isn't already something they can get their hands on through other channels.
Its just silly for anyone to think they have a snowballs chance in hell of doing anything it it. It would be hard for US to reverse engineer it, let alone Iran.
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Probably the same day the U.S. apologizes for the coup that overthrew democracy in Iran and put the Shah in power in 1953.
SJW: Someone who has run out of real oppression, and has to fake it.
How absolutely ridiculous of them to ask us to apologize for committing an act of war. Hasn't anybody been paying attention? The US, and only the US, has the right to invade other countries' airspace, kidnap, torture, and murder their citizens, and then accuse those countries of breaking the law. That's how democracy works. Those silly backward Iranians just don't get it. It must be Islam's fault.
What a competent president would have done is sent another drone to destroy it so the technology didn't fall into the hands of every enemy state in the world.
Yeah, an act of war against a foreign nation after they shoot down your spy drone that was in their airspace sounds like a great plan. Particularly when they're one of the world's largest oil suppliers and gas would probably hit $10 a gallon.
It boggles my mind that this thing didn't self-destruct for exactly this reason.
i keep hoping this is some elaborate super secret spy ruse but the more I watch the incompetence the more I realize its just incompetence.
Or like Law enforcement putting a tracking device on your vehicle and asking for it back when you go public with it.
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Everyone knows that Iran will not return the drone, and they're in that right. The US politicians will just use this as an excuse to escalate things and drive us closer to another unwanted war.
No, that was just grand theft airplane.
That could be considered an act of war. But then again, some might also consider a terrorist mass-murderer, engineer of an attack killing over 3,000 civilians and some unknown number of other attacks, living in a supposedly allied country, apparently with their implicit permission, to be an act of war as well. While we're at it, allowing "protesters" to attack an embassy in your country and hold everyone inside hostage for years is also generally considered to be an act of war. So is sponsoring attacks against the armed forces of another country.
Basically, there's plenty of acts of war to go around in this area.
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I'm a computer programmer, and yet I have to buy my furniture from a store. But wait, how is it possible that I could have the technological capacity to produce software when I have to rely on others for something as rudimentary as furniture? It's almost as if some skills and technical abilities were completely independent of others, and you could be very good at one while remaining completely ignorant of others...
I'm an American, and I know that Iran only recently was able to reverse-engineer the F-5 (early 60's tech) and still hasn't been able to do the same for the F-14 (mid 70's tech.) If they can't reverse-engineer a fighter that they've had for thirty years, and is based on decades-old US technology, what makes you think they can reverse-engineer current US tech in a reasonable amount of time?
There's quite a distance between "they're all primitive camel-riders" and "they're a technological power to rival the United States."
But then again, some might also consider a terrorist mass-murderer, engineer of an attack killing over 3,000 civilians and some unknown number of other attacks, living in a supposedly allied country, apparently with their implicit permission, to be an act of war as well.
That may be, but I don't think that the US is going to allow the Bushes, Clinton, Kissinger, Rumsfeld, etc. to be extradited. The Pakistanis, Iraqis, Indonesians, Cubans, Nicaraguans, etc. are just out of luck. Only the US and Israel are allowed to pursue revenge killings.
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