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Iranian Military Says It's Copying US Drone
New submitter skipkent writes "Iran's military has started to build a copy of a U.S. surveillance drone captured last year after breaking the software encryption, Iranian media reported on Sunday. General Amir Ali Hajizadeh, head of the Revolutionary Guards aerospace division, said engineers were in the final stages of decoding data from the Sentinel aircraft, which came down in December near the Afghan border, Mehr news agency reported."
It's obviously a copyright infringement. If we are lucky, maybe Iranians will just shoot them.
If only it were the RIAA or MPAA instead of the CIA, then Iran would be in serious trouble.
#1 I doubt it .....
#2 who is running things over there, Dr. Evil ?
#3 In the extremely unlikely event that they somehow figured it all out - why on earth would you tell everyone ?
It would be funny if they Open Sourced it.
Welcome our new Persian Robot Overlords.
Speaking of overlords, they will never copy the GSA.
Where Tony Stark pulls up the footage of other countries trying to duplicate his armor? Why do I have a feeling this is going to go something like that.
Now I suddenly understand the strategic importance of ACTA. If they'd signed ACTA, we'd nail 'em when they tried to sell their cheap knockoffs to the Chinese, the Russians, the North-Koreans, the Pakistani, the Venezuelans, the Cubans, the Jemenites, the Hamaz guerilla's, and ... .
"All is as we have foreseen" mutters Leon Panetta as he leans back in his chair petting his cat in a darkened conference room.
"Yes... Take my gift... into your arms"
MWAHAHAHA
But not beyond China's. Iran and China are best buds, I'd imagine China is behind this, letting Iran wave their dick around since we've been harassing them endlessly for a while. This story http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/checkpoint-washington/post/probe-traces-bogus-military-parts-to-china/2011/11/07/gIQAmxglvM_blog.html, talks about counterfeit Chinese parts making their way into the weapons supply chain, with all the outsourcing we do to China, I'm sure their taking our tech and applying it elsewhere.
Why? Not all of them live in mud huts... Underestimating the enemy is dangerous.
They'll be thwarted once they discover all the measurements are in Imperial and not metric.
Occasionally living proof of the Ballmer peak.
Why, because only Americans are ingenious enough to be engineers? Just because it's beyond your understanding doesn't mean it's beyond someone else's even if they are from a country you seem to judgmentally believe can't have smart people.
And good for them. What were we even doing sending drones into that country in the first place? Because "they're making nukes"? Even if Iran made a nuclear bomb, that would do nothing more than.. put them on equal footing with every country surrounding them who also has a nuclear bomb (most of which got theirs directly or indirectly from us). Frankly, any country spending $600 billion/year on the military doesn't get to cry when other people reverse-engineer the technology we're using to push them around.
Are you kidding, we probably had this thing land their on purpose knowing this would happen. We've been looking for an acceptable way to occupy Iran for quite some time. This would be a win for both sides, who would want to change presidents with a new war breaking out, and on the GOP side, people think they will "Get the job done." Save for Ron Paul, everyone is looking for a chance to jump at Iran.
Is it just me, or does copying a $100m spy drone that you easily captured seem like a bad direction to go?
"When life gives you lemons, don't make lemonade. Make life take the lemons back!" -- Cave Johnson
The Iranian Military just announced they are copying this comment.
While Dubya was in office in the U.S., Iran had a President named Mohammed Khatami. Unlike Ahmedinejad, Khatami was a moderate cleric in favor of womens' rights, political reforms, greater freedoms for Iranians, and other moderate ideals. Khatami also was no opposed to political cooperation with the United States, or at least the restoration of diplomatic relations. Bush could easily have reached out a (limited) hand of friendship, and Khatami might very well have shaken it. Relations between Iran and the U.S. could have improved markedly. What happened instead? Bush's Neocon advisers wanted no cooperation/relationship whatosever to develop with Iran. They wanted to maintain Iran's status as an "Enemy of the United States" (perhaps because Israel was also adamant that things be so, and Iran stay politically isolated). So Dubya never reached out to Khatami politically, and actually did the diametric opposite: Iran was included in post 9/11 America's new, and somewhat stupid concept of a "Axis of Evil" that's messing up everything for everyone. No relationship between the U.S. and Iran whatsoever flourished as a result. Not even a limited one. And what happened to Khatami? The moderate Iran President was eventually overruled by Iran's religious hardliners for being too "moderate" or "modern", and his post went to Mahmoud Ahmedinejad. The window of opportunity for improving relations between Iran and the U.S./West to some degree was there. But the Neocons wanted Iran to stay on the "Enemies of the U.S." list, and did their best to ensure that no rapprochement with Iran would take place. -------- That brings us to today. Iran and the U.S. are currently enemies. Neither side sees any value in engaging in serious talks or toning down the jingoistic rhetoric. The Iran situation could, at any point, turn into another "Hot War" (Israel in particular seems to like that idea a lot). And all this because Dubya's advisers told him not to shake Khatami's hand. The situation could have been very, very different if the West had engaged in even "limited relations" with Khatami's vision of a more moderate Iran.
Why did the chicken cross the road? Because Elon Musk put an AI chip in its head.
Hi Iran, we here at the US DoD notice you're trying to build a Predator UAV. Of course Predators are pretty toothless without Hellfire missiles. So to show there's no hard feelings, we decided to send you some. An entire shipment of Hellfire Missiles should be arriving at your reverse engineering facility in just about ... now.
I have worked for a number of companies that thought their employees were so much smarter than everyone else that no one could possibly understand their code by disassembling it. That's wrong.
In this particular game, yeah, they'd be right if they were talking U.S. programmers whose experience was Java, but people who had to deal with old hardware where memory locations mattered, no. I sometimes wonder at Apple folks who believe no one but them understands ARM assembly. I know at least three Russian programmers personally who can quote hex codes for ARM instructions for pretty much everything you'd want to do. I am guessing I am not connected enough to know them all.
People in the third world are at a significant advantage. They deal with the hardware and know what the hell they are doing. I personally blame the change in accreditation standards that caused U.S. people to concentrate on being rather than doing. Theory is great until you have to engage in total war.
I personally expect a wave of smart people to wash over the U.S. any time soon. The only question is whether they will have U.S. visas or if they will be employed by a foreign power.
-- Terry
-- Terry
Drones over Israel? Over the US?
I'd love to see either of those things happen, just to watch the reaction. The US seems to think it is fine to send spy drones over Iran, so presumably it's just fair game to send them over the mainland US too.
The US has spy satellites watching every corner of the earth, presumably the collective EU and China do too, Japan has some... Naturally Iran will be putting its own up at some point, and North Korea will too eventually. Fair's fair, right?
const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC
They didn't capture a drone intact, they displayed a mockup, and a bad one at that.
All this talk about creating their own drone is more propaganda to prop up the Iranian government's "rep" in the middle east among Islamic countries, who pretty much buy everything Iran's news agencies pump out, clonebrush photoshops, crappy models and all.
The materials and electronic guts are way beyond the understanding of pretty much every American, too. They're sure to be way beyond *your* understanding.
If they are really that smart, they are probably better off making their own from scratch.
A Pirate and a Puritan look the same on a balance sheet.
I would like to point out he even stole that quote.
Good-bye
At least they concentrate their resources on this rather than drones.
Ron Paul and RMS should go and live on idealism island together.
Good-bye
...rather than nukes, I mean.
The most I can see them doing is build a mockup that looks like it, showing it flying, and then the entire world concluding, "OMG, they copied the US drone!!!111" — except that it won't contain any of the systems and technology aboard the RQ-170.
Would be a great propaganda victory for Iran, though. Which is exactly the sort of thing they're looking for. Iran's playing up the drone story again, this week saying that Russia and China are aggressively seeking information about it, and then two days later making this "announcement"? With Iran claiming it used a force field and "advanced space technology" to down the drone (and no, this isn't simply a failure of the translation), nothing is too surprising.
Of course, US drones have been flying over Iran for years, and drones are still flying over Iran after the RQ-170 incident.
Interestingly, as the Western press and pundits hyperventilated over the loss of the drone, Iran's state-controlled media and spokesmen repeatedly changed and finessed their story to fit with the most panicked narratives of "what might have happened".
Logic would dictate that the drone simply malfunctioned and crashed, or at absolute MOST had its control link jammed — a known vulnerability of UAS — and was not brought down in a controlled fashion, nor has been "reverse-engineered".
It would be funny if they Open Sourced it.
Go right ahead. You still wouldn't get very far - even if you reversed engineered the code that fly it.
You see, there's also all the engineering with the airframe, avionics and the materials all the technology and science associated with those items.
Then there are the machine tools and other tooling and processes to actually construct it.
The closest analogy I can think of (sorry that it's not a pizza or car) would be a nuclear weapon. They're easy, right? Slam one piece of U235 into another with some dynamite until you get critical mass and BOOM! First, you got to enrich the Uranium.
Good luck with with that.
The United States winning any particular technological arms race benefits no one.
Brian Fundakowski Feldman
Just announce you're done with it, and compile all the highest bidders. Send grateful thank you message to all your free advertisers. Free enterprise works!
Thus proving his point.
Iran isn't a backwater. They have a robotics industry and a space program. Maybe not as sophisticated as Japan, and the US, but pilotless drones aren't designed with cutting edge technology. I don't see why this would be outside Iran's current capabilities.
It's not a matter of intelligence, it's a matter of missing intermediate steps. If you were to transport the drone back to 1940's America (when we were making *our* first nukes) we certainly wouldn't have been able to duplicate it.
They claim they jammed the control signal and spoofed the GPS (jammed the encrypted signal and spoofed the unencrypted signal which the drone fell back on). The drone then circled (possibly) and eventually decided to return to base and land, which happened at the spoofed location inside Iran. Do you really find that so extremely difficult to believe? Why do you think "logic dictates" that this is a lie? Alternatively, why do you think this doesn't qualify as bringing the drone down in a controlled fashion?
Why, because only Americans are ingenious enough to be engineers?
I've met some very smart and capable "Persian" engineers. They don't live in Iran, though :)
Seriously, a lot of the smartest and best-educated Iranians no longer live in the country, and probably won't unless the place changes politically.
Think about it - if your home country had a regime like Iran's and you had the means to live just about anywhere else, would you stick around? And if you did, would you work for that regime? There are selfish smart people (duh), but a significant portion of smart people want nothing to do with such a regime.
W..w..W - Willy Waterloo washes Warren Wiggins who is washing Waldo Woo.
Why do you say that? Iran's been investing a lot in science and tech over the last decade or two. They're ranked 15th in nanotech, and are pretty capable in robotics.
Are you aware, that iran is constructing and building fighter jets? I am always amazed by the broad underestimation of iran, just because they are the bad "towel-head" terrerists (for some people).
It's beyond China's as well for the time being.
They're just going to take the one they have and put gold curtain rods & blue carpet in it.
(South Park)
Less-geeky computer repair alternative for Lansing, MI
Does slashcode support Farsi?
No one has commented about them "breaking the software encryption". I am surprised that it would be so easy to do. Could it be true ?
Does anyone has insight into what type of encryption is used or how it could be broken ? I'm pretty sure it's not ROT13.
Dumbest comment I've seen on the Internet in a while. And that's saying something.
Kythe
Oh yes, american drones are sooo advanced its like magic to the rest of the world.
Where do you live? This issue seems to have really touched a nerve with you. It's OK, we understand.
Don't disappoint your bird dog. Go to the range.
Even if Iran made a nuclear bomb, that would do nothing more than.. put them on equal footing with every country surrounding them who also has a nuclear bomb
Hear hear! The sooner they get a nuclear bomb, the sooner I'll quit hearing about how we might or might not go to war in Iran (we won't be going to war in Iran). The US going to war in Iran is just such a stupid fucking idea, but it seems like a good one to the neo-cons because Israel wants it.
Look where all this talking got us, baby.
Are you aware, that iran is constructing and building fighter jets?
Yes, so did we, over sixty years ago. "Building fighter jets" is not the same as "building fighter jets that have even a fraction of a chance of prevailing against those built in the US, in an actual fight involving real fighter jets."
Don't disappoint your bird dog. Go to the range.
Logic doesn't come to any such conclusion unless there is already bias in the observer, which with your use of the words "panicked narratives" would indicate that you are.
The way I see it, they appear to have an undamaged US drone (and I tend to associate crash and aircraft as resulting in lots of bits), which the US by claiming it back seems to have verified. Beyond that everything is speculation because politics and propaganda gets involved.
create a drone with all types of computer virus' in its chips, lets it "crash land" in iran, then reap the rewards ?
Another proof that US is run by jews who want Iran gone.
You wouldn't be demonstrating the confirmation bias, would you? Just saying...
Like all pain, suffering is a signal that something isn't right
Ah, but when were you last in Iran so that you could meet smart and capable Persian engineers that DO live in Iran though?
As for the ones that live elsewhere, they live where? The US, which helped egg Saddam on to start a war which killed getting on for a million? And the US was complicit in the Iraqi use of weapons of mass destruction (gas)?
Don't get me wrong. The place appears to be run by self serving nut cases. But to be honest is that really much different from most other countries?
Like when the Serbians tracked F117s by using commercial radio stations? Nothing is more likely to throw you a curveball than underestimating an opponent - that's exactly what happened on 9/11, everyone presumed they weren't capable of building a bomb big enough to take down a skyscraper....
Please consider this account deleted, I just can't be bothered with the spam anymore.
Brain drains don't include everyone in a country. In fact, particularly in Iran's case, I suspect that many educated people REFUSE to come to the west because of how they've been treated their whole lives by us. And what about Iran's "regime" is any worse than recent American regimes? (I don't think I need to point to our last president, who's responsible for 100x more deaths than 9/11, while simultaneously using 9/11 as an excuse).
You're also assuming that being smart automatically gives someone the means to leave the country. They need money for that first, and that means even those prospective emigrants need to work in their own country before they can do that. And those who DO emigrate are more likely to go to China than the US, because of China's good relations, treatment, and trade with Iran relative to the west's.
And "Selfish?" If we're getting into broad generalizations, then I'd bet that those STAYING in Iran are likely to do so for less selfish reasons than those leaving it. Those leaving it are just trying to make better lives for themselves (which is understandable); those staying--with the freedom to go to richer, less barren countries--are doing so to make better lives for their neighbors, co-workers, friends, and complete strangers. But that's only assuming that someone from their perspective would have the CRAZY opinion that the giant rich country bombing them, spying on them, threatening them with trade embargoes, and actively supporting their regional rivals doesn't have their family's (or 80 million fellow Iranians') best interests at heart.
Comment removed based on user account deletion
Lamborghinis are notorious for having very low mileage in the real world. You can't drive a status symbol, it might get dirty. Porsche 911, on the other hand, they get driven every day.
From scarped cliff or quarried stone she cries "A thousand types are gone, I care for nothing, no not one."
How is drone technology a "secret"? Mixed UAV/FPV platforms are available for your everyday hobbyist at well under a few hundred $$$. Anyone with a basic grasp of high-school engineering could rig it up to drop bombs/shoot a gun/take pictures in a lazy weekend.
;)
Did someone not tell Iran this? Or is this just dick-waving? The real technology here would be the engines, radio technology and stealth properties of the airframe. Or maybe us hobbyists are good at laying low - considering the potentials of the technology, and Iran just isn't able to do a Google search because they blocked the Internet
'Undamaged' is relative. Remember they didn't show the undercarriage in their pictures, it was all gussied up with banners. Either the Iranians have decided that the drone is female and has to be modestly dressed, or the thing crash landed / wheels up landed and has a fair bit of damage.
Faster! Faster! Faster would be better!
Actually, it is possible to lead a UAV by its nose if you have GPS test set. Anyhoo, they could make a balsa wood copy and fly it RC or with an Ardupilot from DIYdrones. Journalists won't know the difference.
Excuse me, but please get off my Pennisetum Clandestinum, eh!
Huh, ya think? China makes planes, satellites and UAVs of their own. They don't need to copy a design from the previous century.
Excuse me, but please get off my Pennisetum Clandestinum, eh!
Really? They really broke military-grade encryption?
I mean, with only open-source stuff, I'm able to keep my sensitive log files secure enough that you'd need access to more computational power on the planet for a few years to read them even with physical access. Thanks to Rivest et al, it just isn't that hard to make pragmatically unbreakable encryption. I don't have any direct evidence for it, but it's widely assumed that the US military has access to even better encryption than people like me who look up recipes on the web. So was the encryption really broken or is this propaganda?
Put my fist through my alarm clock with its ding-dong death inside my ear. - The Blackjacks.
Funny how "un-innovative" Japan manages to have 10x our internet speeds for the same costs, or how they're largely responsible for video games (one of the most innovative ideas ever made) even existing today. For such an innovative country, America is strangely behind Japan and China in terms of public transportation and high-speed rail.
Sony isn't very innovative today, but really, do you think Microsoft or Google or (oh god) Dell or HP are any better? All the new tech you're hearing about in the news is made by STARTUPS, which are just bought out by big tech companies. One of the only big American companies that still "innovates" (how I hate that word now) is IBM. Meanwhile just look at the Japanese auto industry compared to the American auto industry.
But since we're talking about software innovation, I guess we should just forget about a little thing called Linux that was written by a college kid in Finland. You don't hear about software innovation outside the US because most of it isn't big enough to be news all around the world. Do you think Instagram receives much media attention in Europe?
... Underestimating the enemy is dangerous.
My impression has been that the really difficult part to copy is the software; the drone will be useless without it, but it may be impossible for them to decrypt. Also, don't these things require a satellite network for flight control?
http://news.cnet.com/8301-13924_3-57414373-64/sonys-fall-and-japans-hang-ups/?tag=mncol;editorPicks http://www.firstpost.com/business/sony-gets-beaten-by-apple-samsung-innovation-sees-2-9-bn-loss-201493.html I was there, I know how business is done in Japan, its not efficient. The Chinese simply lack the know-how, I'm sure they'll catch up though.
Python: 'And then suddenly you have a language which says "we're all stuck with whatever the whiniest coder wants".'
Copying onto stencil paper, does not really count.
The funny thing is that all it would take for big, bad, dastardly Iran to wreak havoc on one of our cities is... a bunch of old crop-dusting (or WWII) biplanes. Biplanes travel slow and low enough to completely bypass US radar systems. And why, you ask, don't our radar systems read at altitudes low enough for them? Because (1) there's too much interference from other structures to make it cheap and (2) none of our planes can even safely fly that low!
You can't gauge a country's technological advancement based on military expenditure alone. China has more fighter jets than Japan, but I don't think you'd agree that China is more advanced than Japan. IN FACT, one might even say that military expenditure today varies INVERSELY with the average intelligence of a country's population (China excluded, since their people don't really get a say in it)
So why aren't they bringing down every UAS that continues to fly surveillance missions over Iran?
Common sense doesn't have a bias.
Believing a drone whose undercarriage is completely obscured, probably due to significant damage, is "undamaged" is what's biased. The US asking for the drone back doesn't verify it didn't crash. It verifies they have our drone — which they do.
Why? Not all of them live in mud huts... Underestimating the enemy is dangerous.
But popular. Especially when you're trying to convince yourself that invading them would be easy.
Sheesh, evil *and* a jerk. -- Jade
Only if you consider marketing to be art.
Sheesh, evil *and* a jerk. -- Jade
No concept of OPSEC, for one. You get a leg up on the Great Satan and the first thing you do is announce it to the press?
Kind of like the USA with it's "Mother of All Bombs"?
Sheesh, evil *and* a jerk. -- Jade
What if the reaction was to bomb Iran into the stone age? With the justification that Iran was using WMDs? Or that Iran was threatening Israel?
Uh... those justifications are already in play. And lots of people in the USA are singing "bomb, bomb, bomb Iran".
Just waiting for an "incident", to pacify the public.
Sheesh, evil *and* a jerk. -- Jade
Invading would be easy, sure. I have no doubts that regular Iranian army would get steamrolled within a week. Unfortunately only after this "victory" real war would begin.
Huh, ya think? China makes planes, satellites and UAVs of their own. They don't need to copy a design from the previous century.
How do you think China makes planes, satellites, UAVs, trains, cars, missiles, and electronics? Look up the development history of any of their military technology, for instance, and you'll find that it was copied from other countries, often without real permission and often leading to some pissed off Russians.
"I zero-index my hamsters" - Willtor (147206)
Also, don't these things require a satellite network for flight control?
Iran does have rockets capable of putting satellites in orbit.
Bingo!!! You, sir, have hit upon THE way for the U.S. to cloak our really secret drones. We'll label some female and some male. No one is allowed to look under the female drone's skirts lest Satan grab them by their hind parts (check out Martin Luther). Now, I know what you are thinking, they'll have female agents looking under those skirts. That's where American ingenuity comes in, we'll make them androgynous with BOTH parts.
And they're copying it????
It must. I see many highly rated comments that are farcical if you know much of anything about the topic under discussion.
much of left-wing thought is a kind of playing with fire by people who don't even know that fire is hot - George Orwell
Iran is a different strategic problem to Iraq or Afghanistan.
1. It is four times bigger (80 million people.)
2. It is an old culture, like Egypt, China, India.
3. There are not any "friendly" adjacent states (like Turkey, Pakistan).
After assessing these factors, I suspect US military planners advise against overt action.
Are they going to address the two big defects it apparently has; lack of a self-destruct mechanism and vulnerability to GPS jamming attack? Don't know how Lockheed (or whoever) missed those. Unless... Nah, it's probably nothing...
I'm trying to teach myself to set people on fire with my mind... Is it hot in here?
That makes a lot of sense. For the Same reason, during WW II, the US got great minds like Einstein.
However, due the incessant prattle of race baiting fascists on Fox News, and they Xenophobia promoted by Dominionist religions, we are probably LOSING a lot of great minds to countries that aren't becoming a bunch of fascist pricks.
I was ready to bail on this country if McCain/Palin were chosen as our leaders -- and I might be ready to bail if the re-elected Obama is still a Republican door mat. By any measure, this country has been SECURED up the wazoo. We have a 40 year low in crime but the police forces around the country are still gathering up drones, body armor, and pepper spray as if they had to deal with some sort of siege war.
Before November of 2008 -- a lot of laws and banks seemed to be VERY READY for the problems ahead -- and it strikes me that things like the Patriot Act and NDAA bills are all about preparing for an expected problem that someone worked really hard to create. You know, like Scott Walker needing to fire teachers because he had an economic shortfall in his state, that was about a million dollars less than the money he gave away to corporations to reward them for being in the state.
Disaster capitalists are creating the justification for their austerity measures, and anyone who is truly insightful, is already aware of where this country is headed. Perhaps I'm not that smart -- because I'm still an American. How fucking sad is that?
>>"ad space available -- low rates!!!"
Many such leaks in past wound up dumped on the pirate bay, there's already tons of hacker dumps of giant corps floating around
http://zonehmirrors.net/defaced/2012/03/04/admin.digitalplayground.com/
Eventually The drones software will also be dumped, probably show up on Tor .onion sites first as most data dumps do nowdays
When you know when and where a plane will be you can shoot it down.
In Serbia the F-117's where restricted to a flight corridor some 20 miles wide over the same mountain range to get into and out of the country.
You sit there long enough and use stealth you too could have shot down a stealth plane.
Also the F-117 was designed in 1970's. It's bulky shape was a direct result of the computers of that time being unable to deal with curves Which means it took 25 years from development to shoot one down. The u-2 lasted what 5 years?
i thought once I was found, but it was only a dream.
I hope they don't copy the "crashing" part.
Why?
The thing is a bunch of crop dusting planes can cause more damage than a similar number of fighter jets and bombers.
Bio and chemical weapons are a bitch.
i thought once I was found, but it was only a dream.
Now Iran will be invaded on the pretense of copyright infringement, the worst of the atrocities known to man!
You're correct that people other than Americans can be smart. However, the fact that they have more money than God and all the time in the world to develop a drone, but have nothing useful and will instead waste their time trying to reverse engineer and re-implement ours is the proof that they are incompetent. It has absolutely nothing to do with race, color, creed, or any preference they have to treat at least half their population as subhuman.
Guns don't kill people; Physics kills people! - John Lithgow as Dick Solomon on Third Rock From The Sun
You really believe that claptrap? It is an interesting observation of our times that someone would believe a state-owned outlet of a totalitarian government before they would believe the US media.
But today you can buy some really nice electron-microscopes and computer equipment straight of the shelf to help with the reverse engineering..
Give me a few million dollars of publicly available equipment and then a few more for training some people, with some previous electronics and software knowledge, for a year and i'll show you a fully working reverse-engineering lab that can do most of the stuff you think is impossible...
Hard part in producing alloys required can always be overcome with spending more money - ie not mass-producing efficient but still working... So maybe they will get a drone that is a few kg's heavier and have a bit less fly-time and/or fly a bit slower, but it still works...
it's all about how much money you have.. It's just a bad example to compare it to a 1940 america.. All the knowledge is out there for anyone to learn It's just boils down to how much money and resources you have to do anything with it...
"don't our radar systems read at altitudes low enough for them? Because (1) there's too much interference from other structures to make it cheap and (2) none of our planes can even safely fly that low!"
Are modern radar systems incapable of tracking helicopters without a transponder?
If you are BaHai, things are much worse for you in Iran than anywhere else in the world. Many of the Persians in the west are Baha'i.
They were aggressively atheist, but otherwise expressing any kind of politically incorrect thought got you a long cold and hungry rest-of-your-life-goodbye.
And yet they were state-of-the-art in rocketry, and catching up very rapidly in nuclear weapons, which, after their first bomb (designed by espionage), was mostly an indigenous capacity.
Well, let's see — not only is Iran Times is not state-owned, it is published in the US. It is also just repeating a Washington Post story. Further, the fact that the US is continuing to fly drone missions over Iran unabated runs counter to the Iranian government's narrative that they have the capability to "take down" a US drone in the first place.
Is FOX News a better source?
How about:
Stars and Stripes
Business Insider
Even if you completely ignore things like the remote data communication, reverse engineering the mission computer would take forever if it was possible at all. You've got dozens of LRUs (GPS, INS, analog to digital converters, MMR, etc). A lot if not most of this stuff isn't going to be functional on the ground.
Consider for a moment a Weight on Wheels switch. It's going to do a lot of important stuff. For instance, that's going to be one of the key functions that tells the radar not to power up and shoot a bunch of radiation directly into the technician's nutsack. The MC even on an old C-130 is a couple hundred thousand lines of code. The MIL-STD-1553B bus being used supports multiple channels with each channel supporting 32 LRUs (ignoring broadcast and the like, for simplicity). Each LRU will have 32 subaddresses, and each subaddress will consist of 32 16-bit words. We're looking at millions of bits potentially changing every single cycle. How long does it take to isolate which one corresponds to weight on wheels? How about the one that the MC sends to the radar to tell it not to power up while on the ground?
Or how about a different, more simple example. The unit will have a terrain following mode. If it's on the ground, that simply isn't going to work. There's no way you can simulate the conditions for the mission computer to receive an obstacle warning from the radar, then send out an override to the controls to modify course.
Millions and millions of bits changing every cycle. Even on ancient technology that runs at 20 Hz, you're looking at 20 cycles per second (which consists of one frame). Each bit within each cycle of each frame might correspond to a very different discrete signal.
It can be done, but it's not happening within a year. They're building a shell, but the important stuff is useless to them without much, much more time.
Source: I am a mission computer developer.
Huh? There are some nuclear physicists in Iran, just not as many as there would be if their country wasn't run by a bunch of criminals.
W..w..W - Willy Waterloo washes Warren Wiggins who is washing Waldo Woo.
There are selfish smart people (duh), but a significant portion of smart people want nothing to do with such a regime.
A significant portion of selfish-smart people would want nothing to do with such a regime, either. In fact, it may be a higher portion of those people.
"First they came for the slanderers and i said nothing."
And what about Iran's "regime" is any worse than recent American regimes?
Seriously? I hope you were paid to say that. Otherwise, you are incredibly ignorant and need to read up on the situation in the respective countries. When is the last time you saw people sneaking into Canada and Mexico from the US to flee oppression?
And those who DO emigrate are more likely to go to China than the US, because of China's good relations, treatment, and trade with Iran relative to the west's.
Never said they were all in the US - only that they weren't in Iran.
W..w..W - Willy Waterloo washes Warren Wiggins who is washing Waldo Woo.
Don't get me wrong. The place appears to be run by self serving nut cases. But to be honest is that really much different from most other countries?
Sadly, no. But it is markedly different from the western democracies.
W..w..W - Willy Waterloo washes Warren Wiggins who is washing Waldo Woo.
I hate our immigration laws.
W..w..W - Willy Waterloo washes Warren Wiggins who is washing Waldo Woo.
That may be true, but a talented engineer/scientist could probably do pretty well if he/she (ha, ha, she!) could consistently deliver results to the oppressive controller of the country's economy.
W..w..W - Willy Waterloo washes Warren Wiggins who is washing Waldo Woo.
Indeed, such a person would likely do well anywhere. You need to have a certain desire for risk to put yourself in that kind of situation.
"First they came for the slanderers and i said nothing."
If they have the keys, they can use our satellites...
did NOT see that coming.... [rolls eyes]
Flappinbooger isn't my real name
They wouldn't be the first one encountering that problem.
During the second world war airplanes flew over isolated pacific islands for the first time. One tribe that had never encountered technology built a bamboo and thatch airplane shaped idol of the God that flew over their island.
"The Gods Must Be Crazy".
Nah, they'll keep poking the weak kids and beat the shit out of them if they try to fight back.
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How many drones do you think the U.S. had circling over Iran at the time they brought this one down? How many more do you think the U.S. had to send in and lose, one after another right behind it, before they realized there was a problem?
There is absolutely nothing implausible about the Iranian's story. I am convinced they brought it down just as they claim. Source: I am a telecommunications engineer, formerly of the U.S. Air Force.
It never occurred to you that the U.S. patched the vulnerability immediately, and continues to fly drone missions after that incdent if for no other reason than to make the Iranians' story seem less credible?
No bro, you are dead on, and it's got me worried as shit to. I've been noticing over the past year or so some really, really disturbing laws being passed. The whole thing seems like the mouthpiece is consistently saying one thing, while consistently doing and preparing for doing just the opposite. It kinda makes you wonder if all this crazy Illuminati bullshit might have some truth to it. Who the hell is pulling the strings here?
Well, I heard the sorceror who cast the spell which brought it down in the first place has been hard at work with his scribes, designing a special series of scrolls and incantations to unlock its powers. So...don't count the Iranians out just yet.
....all of which is completely moot, since the only value this drone really holds for them is propaganda purposes. They already manufacture plenty of their own drones, it's not like possessing this drone's powers is going to shift the balance of a potential war or anything.
Pretty sure they know what they're doing bro. They got this. No comments from the peanut gallery needed. How long have you been a mad insane crazy (yet successful) Middle Eastern dictator, again? ... Yeah, that's what I thought.
"Mother of all Bombs"...lol. How cute. The Tsar Bomba makes the MOAB look like a fuckin bitch.
Oh man, this is great.
UAS have some known, long term vulnerabilities that are intrinsic to UAS and cannot be "patched". There are ways some of them can be mitigated or minimized, but we're not talking about "patching a vulnerability" on a Linux host, here. I'm also not sure you're aware how long it takes to get ANY changes into operational ISR systems.
Iran's military has started to build a copy of a U.S. surveillance drone
What are they going to do with it, fly it over Texas?
The three laws of thermodynamics:(1) You can't win. (2) You can't break even. (3) You can't even quit.
Curious that this news from zdnet http://www.zdnet.com.au/spy-drone-data-reveals-bin-laden-link-339336470.htm appears in news soon afterward. Are they analyzing it and cloning at the same time?
Probably be cheaper than what we pay the defense contractors. Though the service contract will be tricky.
You're convinced they brought it down just as they claim? You may know something that I don't, being that you're formerly of the Air Force, but it sounds kinda like bullshit to me.
In the shape of a little airplane...
Yes because Iran's copying of other technology like missiles, is going oh so well. Last I check they only county to fail more tests was NK.
Maybe they should just photoshop a drone together from the start and save themselves the effort.