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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.

42 of 663 comments (clear)

  1. Now these guys have some balls by InsightIn140Bytes · · Score: 5, Funny

    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

    Getting caught and then asking to return their spying device, lol.

    1. Re:Now these guys have some balls by Fallingcow · · Score: 4, Funny

      Yeah, it's kind of like throwing a baseball through someone's window then asking for the ball back.

    2. Re:Now these guys have some balls by elrous0 · · Score: 5, Funny

      A better analogy might be a peeping tom throwing a camera through someone's window and then ringing the doorbell to ask for it back.

      You'd be surprised how often that works, BTW.

      --
      SJW: Someone who has run out of real oppression, and has to fake it.
    3. Re:Now these guys have some balls by YrWrstNtmr · · Score: 4, Informative

      Getting caught and then asking to return their spying device, lol.

      Like the Russians asking for their MiG-25 back (they got it in boxes after much study), or the US asking China for it's EP-3 orion back (we got it and it is still flying today).

    4. Re:Now these guys have some balls by dittbub · · Score: 5, Insightful

      It also takes balls to ask for an apology for receiving a very nice gift.

    5. Re:Now these guys have some balls by Moheeheeko · · Score: 4, Interesting

      ACTUALLY Its more like putting a camera on the fence looking at your neigbors yard, and they rip it down, and then asking for it back.

    6. Re:Now these guys have some balls by forkfail · · Score: 5, Funny

      Actually, it's like parking your car on the street in front of your neighbor's house and having them tow it on to their yard and put it up on blocks.

      (Well, somebody had to make the car analogy....)

      --
      Check your premises.
    7. Re:Now these guys have some balls by 0123456 · · Score: 4, Insightful

      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.

    8. Re:Now these guys have some balls by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

      Actually its more like flying a drone into someones airspace and having it crash, and then asking for it back.

    9. Re:Now these guys have some balls by gsnedders · · Score: 5, Informative

      The MiG-25 was obtained by the West after a Russian pilot defected, aircraft and all. It had nothing to do with a Soviet aircraft being in airspace without permission.

    10. Re:Now these guys have some balls by eclectus · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Or like Law enforcement putting a tracking device on your vehicle and asking for it back when you go public with it.

      --
      This signature is a waste of 42 characters
    11. Re:Now these guys have some balls by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

      No, that was just grand theft airplane.

    12. Re:Now these guys have some balls by ackthpt · · Score: 5, Funny

      Actually its more like flying a drone into someones airspace and having it crash, and then asking for it back.

      Actually, it's more like ... wait a minute.

      --

      A feeling of having made the same mistake before: Deja Foobar
    13. Re:Now these guys have some balls by CrimsonAvenger · · Score: 4, Informative

      Now that's just a police action, there's a difference. Hell if I know what it is.

      It's a police action if the President can't get a Declaration of War out of Congress but does it anyway.

      Sort of like Libya. Or the crap going down in Yemen.

      Or arguably Iraq and Afghanistan (Congress told Bush he could do it, at least, though they wouldn't come through with a Declaration of War, so it's only "arguable").

      Or Panama, Grenada, Vietnam, Korea (again, arguable, same reasons), Nicaragua (several times), many others through history.

      --

      "I do not agree with what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it"
    14. Re:Now these guys have some balls by downhole · · Score: 4, Insightful

      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.

      --
      I don't reply to ACs
    15. Re:Now these guys have some balls by icebike · · Score: 4, Informative

      Exactly.

      IF its that secret. But there are indications its not all that secret or sensitive (despite public statements to the contrary).

      There is considerable speculation on the web that there is not that much secret stuff in this aircraft anyway, because it was fully expected they would have operational losses. See Here:

      The design lacks several elements common to stealth engineering, namely notched landing gear doors and sharp leading edges. It has a curved wing planform, and the exhaust is not shielded by the wing.[10] Aviation Week postulates that these elements suggest the designers have avoided 'highly sensitive technologies' due to the near certainty of eventual operational loss inherent with a single engine design and a desire to avoid the risk of compromising leading edge technology.

      --
      Sig Battery depleted. Reverting to safe mode.
    16. Re:Now these guys have some balls by Talderas · · Score: 4, Interesting

      As the other poster noted, when you have a downlink that's shooting out live video feeds, the people on the ground need to have access to that data in near real time and you're not going to run every soldier that -might- be using the link through a SECRET/TOP SECRET security clearance check before allowing them to have access to it. Then you have to redistribute the keys to all those soldiers whenever they get swapped out. It's a logistical nightmare that doesn't net you much of a benefit in light of the below...

      What the US is observing in real time is of limited usage. Without knowing the location of the observer, a top down view of a place can be very difficult to make useful, especially depending on how close the view is. Without readily discernible landmarks identifying buildings from other buildings it can be extremely difficult to discern where you're looking. As an example, get someone to pick a point in the city you live on the closest zoom level on Google Maps. Don't use any street names. Now try to ID where you're looking at. Further, just seeing what is being observed isn't 100% indicative of the intentions of the observer's actions and knowing that they view the streams has potential applications in the realms of disinformation. For instance, if we knew some insurgents were monitoring the downlink and were holed up in a building we could station a net around the build then use the drone to watch the building and wait for them to flee into more open terrain and be caught by the net.

      --
      "Lack of speed can be overcome. In the worst case by patience." --Znork
    17. Re:Now these guys have some balls by cusco · · Score: 4, Insightful

      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.

      --
      "Think about how stupid the average person is. Now, realise that half of them are dumber than that." - George Carlin
  2. Clone on the Range by Megane · · Score: 5, Funny

    Oh, give me a drone where the camels all roam
    Where the Sikhs and the Sunnis all pray
    Where often is heard a discouraging word
    And the skies are dusty all day

    Clone, clone of my drone
    Where the Sikhs and the Sunnis all pray
    Where often is heard a discouraging word
    And the skies are dusty all day

    --
    #naabhaprzrag, #sverubfr-000, #agi-fcbafberq, negvpyr[pynff*=' negvpyr-ary-'] { qvfcynl: abar !vzcbegnag; }
  3. Jesus by TheRealMindChild · · Score: 4, Insightful

    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.

    --

    "When life gives you lemons, don't make lemonade. Make life take the lemons back!" -- Cave Johnson
  4. Good luck with that by BitZtream · · Score: 4, Insightful

    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.

    --
    Persistent Volume manager for Kubernetes - https://github.com/dwimsey/openshift-pvmanager
  5. Re:When will Iran apologize to humanity? by elrous0 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    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.
  6. Step 2.... Step 3 profit by mwfischer · · Score: 4, Informative

    Obviously the next course of action is to air strike the shit out of it so the technology doesn't go into enemy hands.

    Hey they asked nice, first.

  7. What nonsense by mr.mctibbs · · Score: 5, Insightful

    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.

  8. All Ur Drones R Belong 2 Us by macraig · · Score: 4, Funny

    Ummm... if they clone an American drone, won't it still answer to our siren call? Cool, that would make Iran a subcontractor for the U.S. military!

    1. Re:All Ur Drones R Belong 2 Us by elrous0 · · Score: 5, Funny

      I bet they could make them cheaper than Lockheed Martin. Might work out for us in the end.

      --
      SJW: Someone who has run out of real oppression, and has to fake it.
  9. old fortune says by drodal · · Score: 4, Funny

    O give me a clone, of the downed US drone, with the Y chromosome changed to X.......

    (it was funny in the 80's)

  10. why no self-destruct? by Chirs · · Score: 4, Insightful

    It boggles my mind that this thing didn't self-destruct for exactly this reason.

    1. Re:why no self-destruct? by cblack · · Score: 4, Insightful

      These drones do have a self-destruct as well as other "things are going wrong" modes. One of them is to just circle waiting for control communications to be re-established. Another one is an automatic safe landing mode. Some people suspect that this drone may have gone into auto landing mode which would explain why it appears undamaged. For such a sensitive device leading to such horrible PR if captured, I feel perhaps the self-destruct should be the default failure mode :)
      However, having it just blow up in some civilian household would probably not be good PR either.

    2. Re:why no self-destruct? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Funny

      If they circumvent the encryption, the US can nail them under the DMCA. And if they clone it, boy are they in for a heap of trouble with IP and patent violations. No, I don't even see how they could possibly even consider doing any of that.

  11. Well, it's possible... by medcalf · · Score: 5, Interesting

    It's possible that we deliberately downed a drone over Iran with a modern appearance but made with the wrong materials, and with old sensors and electronics generally — or maybe with electronics deeply flawed in a subtle way — with the intent of having Russia and China get their hands on it and then underestimate our capabilities. It's possible, that is, that this is actually an intelligence coup of the highest order.

    Knowing our government from inside experience, though, I'm voting for the assclown theory as the survivor of Occam's razor.

    --
    -- Two men say they're Jesus. One of them must be wrong. - Dire Straits
  12. ...But he said Please! by sanzibar · · Score: 5, Insightful

    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.

    1. Re:...But he said Please! by sosume · · Score: 4, Interesting

      That's EXACTLY what I was thinking. Like a Trojan horse, the Iranians are parading the thing around all their secret facilities.

    2. Re:...But he said Please! by Barefoot+Monkey · · Score: 5, Funny

      You mean the spy drone is a spy?

      We need to go deeper.

  13. They already knew by Squiddie · · Score: 5, Insightful

    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.

    1. Re:They already knew by LWATCDR · · Score: 4, Informative

      Actually under international law they are supposed to return any wreckage from an aircraft that crashes in their territory. That is during peace time. Also as long as the aircraft was not "military" and not armed it is not considered an act of war.

      --
      See my blog http://ilovecookes.blogspot.com/ for light hearted technical information.
  14. Tough call by Aphoxema · · Score: 4, Funny

    IANAL, but according to the precedent set by Keepers Vs. Weepers, I think the US will have a very hard time convincing the courts for the immediate return of their supposed property unless they can get their mommy and daddy involved.

    Oh, this was in Iran? Well, we know where this is going. The US will just go over to Iran's house and shoot his parents in the face.

    --
    "Most people, I think, don't even know what a rootkit is, so why should they care about it?"
  15. Re:Iran? Nope, China and Russia... by Clsid · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Your post denotes a big ignorance about Iran's manufacturing base. Those guys make their own cars, reverse engineered the F-14 and the Cobra during a war with Iraq and I have seen their technology up-close. They might not be a powerhouse but they are not some crappy middle east country either. Their drone production is actually better than China and Russia. Look up for the Ababil, Mohajer and others so you get a picture of how old their programs are and how advanced they are compared to China and Russia.

  16. Run Away! by MarkGriz · · Score: 5, Funny

    Biden: Well, now, uh, Obama, Panetta, and I, wait until nightfall, and then leap out of the drone, taking the Iranians by surprise

    --
    Beauty is in the eye of the beerholder.
  17. Re:Iran? Nope, China and Russia... by bieber · · Score: 4, Insightful

    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...

  18. Re:Iran? Nope, China and Russia... by the+linux+geek · · Score: 4, Insightful

    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."

  19. Link to the referenced story by sourcerror · · Score: 5, Interesting