Iran attacked US drone a week ago

[kollang]

I will not get onto the airspace issue, but the SU-25 is apparently not very optimized for air to air combat (its a ground attack aircraft), and its likely the pilots did try to shoot it down but failed.

Why Iran would use ground attack aircraft to intercept a drone is beyond me though.

well i think i know why...
as you know such fighters are used in order for attacking low speed things like tanks and...
well if you see the vid how israeli fighter destroyed the Iranian UAV few week ago,you can see the answer.f-16 was fast and the drone was slow.so it became a little bit hard for the israeli pilot to analysis the drone .but regarding su-25,its low stall speed let it fly slowly and let him destroy such UAVs.also the Iranian fighter also had the chance to analysis the drone too.

 

[doublemaster]

How could iran detect stealth drone?having better radar?
I can surly say its warning shot because reports say they followed drones back forth around it till some distance

 

[anon45]

well i think i know why...
as you know such fighters are used in order for attacking low speed things like tanks and...
well if you see the vid how israeli fighter destroyed the Iranian UAV few week ago,you can see the answer.f-16 was fast and the drone was slow.so it became a little bit hard for the israeli pilot to analysis the drone .but regarding su-25,its low stall speed let it fly slowly and let him destroy such UAVs.also the Iranian fighter also had the chance to analysis the drone too.

Sounds reasonable, and is supported by some analysis here
Watch the drone: Why didn't the Iranian pilots down the U.S. Predator? | Killer Apps

That said there is a knowledgeable comment on there which im taking word for word and placing here which supports the 'tried to shoot down pov'.

It's not unreasonable that the Iranian pilots would have missed. As the last sentence points to, these are Iranian attack pilots. They don't fly that often, and when they do they don't train in air-to-air tactics. Plus the Su-25's gunsight can't calculate lead (it doesn't have a radar), so unless they were camped out directly behind the drone (nearly impossible given its ~100 knot cruising speed), they would just be estimating how much lead to pull on each attack. And they'd have to do that while maneuvering in a pattern around it to manage their airspeed advantage. The bottom line is that it's not as easy as you might think, especially for guys who don't do it often. And why would they pull the trigger unless they intended to shoot it down? It's pretty hard to scare a drone pilot!

 

[anon45]

How could iran detect stealth drone?having better radar?
I can surly say its warning shot because reports say they followed drones back forth around it till some distance

well as mentioned on the link i posted, the drone might have some mitigating 'stealth' paints and shaping, but this isn't anything like a b-2, f-22, or f-35 level of stealth design, and its small size is its biggest advantage

 

[Harry_Thomason]

Sounds reasonable, and is supported by some analysis here
Watch the drone: Why didn't the Iranian pilots down the U.S. Predator? | Killer Apps

That said there is a knowledgeable comment on there which im taking word for word and placing here which supports the 'tried to shoot down pov'.

That post by skt5b has many weak points: he assumes these Iranian pilots fly rarely, how does he know? Then he assumes no point of warning shots because one "cant scare the drone." Is Predator a flying scrap of metal without sensors, radars, video cameras, and a human "pilot" somewhere in the base? You most definitely can "scare" the operator, or maybe more accurately - make him cautious and remove drone from the area.

I'm not saying its impossible that Iranians tried to shoot the drone down and missed - but its the least likely explanation. Common sense suggests that two slow jets (ideal for such task) flying back and forth, should be able hit the slow non-maneuvering drone in majority (if not all) cases. Like in yours linked article expert admits Iranians should have hit the Predator if they choose to, and Iranian press mentioned warning shots was what happened.

Negotiations are up soon, and whats the point to rattle the boat with the US at this moment? Both presidents said they are up for direct contact, and shooting the drone down would be a slap in Obama's face, and a lot of people in US and media would want some kind of blow-back, thats counter-productive for negotiations.

 

[Globenim]

U.S.A. playing victims of Iranian "aggression" after yet another spy drone and hostile intrusion of Iran was to be exposed...

"Oh our spy drone was totally unarmed how dare they to defend their national security and integrity!"
"Oh we regularly try to provoke them with spy drones! It was a routine! Why do they act so aggressive?"
"Oh we where totally flying outside of Iran in international waters! just like we claimed about the last spy drone that was later exposed and admitted to have been intruding far into Iranian airspace"

That got to be joke of the week.

 

[Oldman1]

Imagine the US response to an Iranian drone operating in international Gulf of Mexico waters off of Florida.

I doubt we would do anything since we never fired on any before. Even amongst the Russians. And yet the Russians have fired on American aircraft. Well known fact.

 

[Harry_Thomason]

I doubt we would do anything since we never fired on any before. Even amongst the Russians. And yet the Russians have fired on American aircraft. Well known fact.

US many times put jets in the air to escort out Russian jets/bombers from near-by international waters (which US considers its outer defense zone, which extends more than real territorial zone).

 

[doublemaster]

Hezbullah done is more powerful or US one? because hezbullah one reached inside isreal undetected!! but US one detected even before entering!!

I think US can use these drones only in country like Afgan and Yemen!

 

[RayKalm]

Good job. Keep on defending your land.

 

[bdslph]

what Iran did is a good job first is to at least detect it even though Iran could not shoot it down ,
USA has to admit the Iran wanted to shoot it down

even though international water or not it is too risky for Iran to let USA drone to spy on them
i may not know what actually happened
the drone may not enter but the camera can take picture and video

 

[gambit]

US many times put jets in the air to escort out Russian jets/bombers from near-by international waters (which US considers its outer defense zone, which extends more than real territorial zone).

Do you know why it is 'out'? Because the Soviet bomber has to leave sometime. It cannot loiter forever and it cannot trespass US airspace, especially when US armed fighters are its escorts.

So what is your point there?

 

[Serpentine]

Do you know why it is 'out'? Because the Soviet bomber has to leave sometime. It cannot loiter forever and it cannot trespass US airspace, especially when US armed fighters are its escorts.

So what is your point there?

The drone was only 4 miles out of Iran's terrirtoy (according to US claims which I don't beleive anyway),a country that has no relations with U.S and you always threaten to bomb it,so we did have a right not to allowing the drone hanging around near our borders.

One doesn't need to be genius to predict what would happen if one of Iran jets or Spy drones flied 4 miles off New York coast.

 

[kurup]

Iranian fighter jet attacked US drone, says Pentagon

Washington : Iranian fighter jet had attacked a US drone but missed it, the US Defense Department has confirmed. In an announcement, Pentagon press secretary George Little said the Iranian aircraft fired at the US drone and followed it as it flew over the Arabian Gulf last week, Xinhua reported Friday.

"I can confirm that on November 1, at approximately 4.50 a.m. Eastern Daylight Time, an unarmed, unmanned MQ-1 US military aircraft conducting routine surveillance over the Arabian Gulf, was intercepted by an Iranian SU-25 Frog-foot aircraft and was fired upon with guns," he said.

Little said the incident occurred over international waters, approximately 16 nautical miles (about 30 km) off of the Iranian coastline, emphasising "the MQ-1 was not hit, and returned to its base safely." "The aircraft, once it came under fire at approximately the 16 nautical mile range, moved further out," he said.

"The Iranian aircraft continued to pursue the MQ-1 for some period of time before letting it return to base." "We believe they fired at least twice and made at least two passes," Little said, confirming both Congress and the White House were notified of the incident, and the US responded to Iran through the "Swiss protective powers".

"The United States has communicated to the Iranians that we will continue to conduct surveillance flights over international waters, over the Arabian Gulf, consistent with longstanding practices and our commitment to the security of the region," Little said.

While insisting the aircraft was "never in Iranian airspace. It was always flying in international airspace," Little said the US side can respond using a "wide range of options -- from diplomatic to military -- to protect its military assets and forces in the region, and "will do so when necessary" .

Indian Defence News - Iranian fighter jet attacked US drone, says Pentagon

 

[gambit]

The drone was only 4 miles out of Iran's terrirtoy (according to US claims which I don't beleive anyway),a country that has no relations with U.S and you always threaten to bomb it,so we did have a right not to allowing the drone hanging around near our borders.

One doesn't need to be genius to predict what would happen if one of Iran jets or Spy drones flied 4 miles off New York coast.

The issue is weapons fire. The Soviets threatened US with nuclear weapons and all we did was escorted their aircrafts until they decided to leave. The lack of diplomatic relations between any two countries are irrelevant about these situations. If we go by your arguments, the lack of diplomatic relations would give license for any countries to conduct murders, abductions, or just plain bullying of ordinary citizens by either side.