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Air Force Says Iran Didn't Down Drone
First time accepted submitter QQBoss writes "The Air Force is not saying what caused the RQ-170 UAV to crash in Iran, but that Iran's claim to have forced it down is erroneous. The drone didn't come down and land gently as Iran had suggested it did. At least Iran got a good photo op, though the more interesting question is what technology will they be able to glean from what they did capture."
Hi. We're the US Airforce.
We run a secret intelligence agency, and have an acknowledged PsyOp division, aimed at the general US population.
Please believe us. We are not lying to you, about this. Really.
"Flyin' in just a sweet place,
Never been known to fail..."
They shouldn't just be able to take what they want from it. That technology is valuable IP.
This is why we need SOPA.
"We live in a global world" - Harvey Pitt, former Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman
Why doesn't the drone have a self-destruct functionality?
I mean... isn't this like the ultimate reason for that functionality? So that technology doesn't get into enemy hands? Just like spies having these suicide pills?
Oh well... seems like this one doesn't have any.
Yeah, I also laughed out loud when I saw the page in the link.
:)
I do find it credible that Iran didn't use technical wizardry to down the drone. As a former Air Force electronic warfare technician, I'm guessing that Iran just flooded the area with high-amplitude noise jamming to trigger an automatic landing routine. My knowledge is not current, but much military technology nowadays uses 2 other (3-letter-acronym) types of satellite-based navigation technology with better precision than that of GPS.
There's a reason for classifying technology, and it's not to hide super-secret features. It's to prevent the enemy from knowing what a piece of shit the technology is.
But then again, seeing how the Joint Strike fighter and the F-22 both turned out to be flimsy, overpriced pieces of shit, It would not surprise me to see hurried Tijuana design practices in the systems integration. The last good American aircraft was the ultra-versatile, ultra-reliable F-15 airframe, which is still being adapted for use. I know because I worked on 'em, back in the days when their main antenna array was mechanically scanned
Sony and Chevy are both competing for the new self-destruct battery contract.
Is it just my observation, or are there way too many stupid people in the world?
U.S. receives intelligence that Iran are working on tech to bring down an enemy drone safely.
U.S. plays along and lets Iran "land" a drone with sub-par/poisoned tech on board.
U.S. pretends to try and reproduce the bug that Iran publically announces, hence the delay.
U.S. claims that Iran's method couldn't have possibly worked and that it was an unknown error.
Iran thinks that U.S. is either incompetent or has failed to realise the key, unreleased, step in their methodology.
U.S. lets Iran believe that their method works, and, optionally, leads them down the garden path with poisoned tech on board the planted drone.
When Real War breaks out, U.S. has an advantage, drones continue to fly and Iran wastes time and energy trying to perfect their drone-capturing skillz.
the fact is that Iran HAS the unit, even if they had to duct tape it back together. Even if it crashed, it was still close enough to Iran to land ON THEIR SIDE of the border. The thing to take as US citizens is that our military is consistently goading Iran along... Obviously the drone was violating Iran's airspace when it went down... so our government is stoking them to keep up the crazy talk.. just because they are paranoid doesn't mean our side isn't out to start shit.
Why are you contradicting yourself?
Noise jamming is not "technical wizardry." It is the crudest form of electronic jamming known to man. It's the "hail mary" of the jamming world. If Iran used it, they did so because their technology is primitive, not because they had inside information.
Yeah that's called "security through obscurity" and no self-respecting security relies on it.
Tell that to the Serbians who shot down an American stealth fighter using primitive sixties-era Russian technology.
.
I have a hard time believing they would do this if your theory - simple jamming - were correct.
I also have a hard time believing the GP that US propagandists would use such a simple, falsifiable lie.
So, I think the most likely scenario is that this new high-tech drone simply broke down over Iran and crash-landed.