US Stealth UAV RQ-170 downed in IRAN

[Kylin]

[/QUOTE]

that looks a lot like what they were showing
the two black strips on the right nose of the plane

 

[Arman-Shahr]

It is interesting to see US officials confirmed drone showed in footage is their drone, but some people here don't accept it.
In Persian language we have a proverb to describe them, we call them "the bowl hotter than soup".

---
After purchasing F-14's more than 3 decades ago, this is another good purchase by Iran from the US, but this time for free. like Tomcats , now only US and Iran have this drone.

 

[S10]

It's the real drone. I know some of you will complain about the paint job, but the paint job is consistent with drones being launched in the Afghanistan theatre. Also, the drone does have quite a bit of damage on it, judging by the tapes and scraps on it. In addition, the fact that Iranians covered up the bottom probably meant that the drone landed on its belly or the landing gear was damaged.

Now I think the Americans knew their drone went down in Iran, but decided not to take further steps fearing political escalation. This drone can be a very valuable study asset. It was about to fly above Bin Laden's location providing instant relays to Obama administration without Pakistan air defences picking it up. In addition, weeks before the Bin Laden raid, the drone was used to identify the occupants of the compound.

 

[Mujraparty]

I will be really glad to see US officials think like you. but unfortunately now they know the fact is different than what you think.

This drone can be controlled by Ground Station, Satellite communication and in the case of disconnecting these communications, autopilot system takes the control of drone, and finally it is equipped with self-destruct system.

If a technical malfunction can disable all these systems simultaneously, So the very advanced top-secret technology of US is really scrap.

well ,im not saying that the drone shown in the media isn't RQ-170 in fact thats wat it is , but im just questioning Iran's capability of ..

However, Iranian officials say its forces electronically hijacked the drone and steered it to the ground. Iran's Press TV said that the Iranian army's "electronic warfare unit" brought down the drone on 4 December as it was flying over the city of Kashmar

very advanced top-secret technology , doesn't necessarily mean they are not likely to have accidents/technical malfunctions

 

[Abii]

It is interesting to see US officials confirmed drone showed in footage is their drone, but some people here don't accept it.
In Persian language we have a proverb to describe them, we call them "the bowl hotter than soup".

---
After purchasing F-14's more than 3 decades ago, this is another good purchase by Iran from the US, but this time for free. like Tomcats , now only US and Iran have this drone.

hahahaha @ kase dagh tar az ash
khoob oomadi

 

[S10]

well ,im not saying that the drone shown in the media isn't RQ-170 in fact thats wat it is , but im just questioning Iran's capability of very advanced top-secret technology , doesn't necessarily mean they are not likely to have accidents/technical malfunctions

Many drones have crashed with their structural integrity intact, and the lack of burning suggest this one may have been running on empty tank. I am not buying this hacking story. More likely, the drone links suffered some type of malfunction, and crash landed within Iran.

 

[Abii]

this pic looks like a carbon copy of what we're seeing from IRan
check out the 'black tapes'

 

[Arman-Shahr]

well ,im not saying that the drone shown in the media isn't RQ-170 in fact thats wat it is , but im just questioning Iran's capability of ..


very advanced top-secret technology , doesn't necessarily mean they are not likely to have accidents/technical malfunctions

I didn't talk about that is it real or model, too.
I talked about your scenario, I say disabling simultaneously all ground station and satellite control, autopilot and self-destruct system of drone by technical malfunction, is highly unlikely if we don't say is impossible , in this multimillion dollars ,very advanced top secret drone.

 

[Zarvan]

I can't understand one thing How Iran destroyed that drone or How it made it crash because in the video it seems no part of drone is damaged

 

[untitled]

Iranians claimed they hacked in to guidance system and forced it land

BBC News - Iran shows film of captured US drone

 

[Birbal]

Studying this image more, and studying the real characteristics of the RQ-170, there is no way the image displayed by the Iranians could fly properly (even with the so called chopped off wings). So I don't even think it's the real drone.

A flying wing configuration, i.e., no tail, needs much larger ailerons than displayed by the tiny little ones in the Iranian image. The real RQ-170 has much longer and larger ailerons. Looks like in the Iranian version they've mocked them up from some other aircraft that they were familiar with.

The one in the Iranian image do not match one bit & my limited knowledge of aerodynamics tells me this configuration would not be able to fly.

A drone, maybe an RQ-170 over Iran crashed in an unrecoverable state - think 50,000ft operating altitude. Mockup made to show the press. No shots of rear/underneath/part numbers for obvious reasons.

I don't know what you're talking about. Those ailerons in the picture are massive.

 

[Arman-Shahr]

Israeli Intelligence Report: US Drone downed by Iran Cyber Attack

he Israeli intelligence news outlet Debka report confirms that Iran has downed a US drone "undamaged". "Its almost perfect condition confirmed Tehran's claim that the UAV was downed by a cyber attack".

The drone was not shot down, as previously reported. It was brought down through an Iranian cyber attack which disabled its communications system.

Debka states in this regard that both US and Israeli intelligence are "shocked" by these developments, suggesting possible Command and Control weakenesses. "The state of the lost UAV refutes the US military contention that the Sentinel's systems malfunctioned. If this had happened, it would have crashed and either been wrecked or damaged.":

"Iran exhibited the top-secret US stealth drone RQ-170 Sentinel captured on Sunday, Dec. 4. Its almost perfect condition confirmed Tehran's claim that the UAV was downed by a cyber attack, meaning it was not shot down but brought in undamaged by an electronic warfare ambush. This is a major debacle for the stealth technology the US uses in its warplanes and the drone technology developed by the US and Israel."

The condition of the RQ-170 intact obliges the US and Israel to make major changes in plans for a potential strike against Iran's nuclear program.

The Obama administration's decision after internal debate not to send US commando or air units into Iran to retrieve or destroy the secret RQ-170 stealth drone which fell into Iranian hands has strengthened the hands of the Israeli faction which argues the case for striking Iran's nuclear installations without waiting for the Americans to make their move.

Senior Israeli diplomatic and security officials who followed the discussion in Washington concluded that, by failing to act, the administration has left Iran not only with the secrets of the Sentinel's stealth coating, its sensors and cameras, but also with the data stored in its computer cells on targets marked out by the US and/or Israeli for attack.

debkafile’s military sources say that this knowledge compels the US and Israel to revise their plans of attack for aborting the Iranian nuclear program. Like every clandestine weapons system, the RQ-170 had a self-destruct mechanism to prevent its secrets spilling out to the enemy in the event of a crash or capture. This did not happen. Tehran was able to claim the spy drone was only slightly damaged when they downed it. The NATO spokesman claimed control was lost of the US UAV and it went missing, a common occurrence for these unmanned aircraft. The enigmas surrounding its capture continue to pile up. How did Iran know the drone had entered its airspace? How was it caused to land? Most of all, why did the craft's self-destruct mechanism which is programmed to activate automatically fail to work? And if it malfunctioned, why was it not activated by remote control?

Thursday, Dec. 8, The New York Times and the Wall Street Journal reported that from Sunday, Dec. 4, when Tehran announced the stealth drone's capture, the Obama administration weighed sending special commando forces into Iran from bases in Afghanistan to bring the downed aircraft back to Afghanistan or blow it up to destroy the almost intact secret systems - either by a sneak operation or by an air strike.

Iranian officials said the drone was detected near the Iranian town of Kashmar, 200 kilometers from the Afghan border and presumably moved to a military or air base inside the country. The NYT disclosed that the special force would have used "allied agents inside Iran" to hunt down the missing aircraft, the first time Washington has admitted to support from "allied agents" operating covertly in Iran.

In the end, the paper quoted a US official as explaining that the attack option was ruled out "because of the potential it could become a larger incident." If an assault team entered the country, the US "could be accused of an act of war" by Tehran. The Obama administration's internal discussion on how to handle the loss of the high-value reconnaissance drone was followed tensely in Jerusalem. The decision it took against mounting a mission to recover or destroy the top-secret Sentinel was perceived in Israel as symptomatic of a wider decision to call off the covert war America has been conducting for some months against Iran's drive for a nuclear bomb – at least until the damage caused by RQ-170 incident is fully assessed. A senior Israeli security official had this to say: “Everything that’s happened around the RQ-170 shows that when it comes to Iran and its nuclear program, the Obama administration and Israel have different objectives. On this issue, each country needs to go its own way.” (For further details see Debka, December 8, 2011)

Israeli Intelligence Report: US Drone downed by Iran Cyber Attack

 

[lt.fridz]

There was something very interesting in this piece

Israeli Intelligence Report: US Drone downed by Iran Cyber Attack
...
The NATO spokesman claimed control was lost of the US UAV and it went missing, a common occurrence for these unmanned aircraft.
...

Israeli Intelligence Report: US Drone downed by Iran Cyber Attack

They are saying that it is a common occurrence for these drones to go missing and for their pilots to loose control of them!

 

[longbrained]

In the land of freedom of speech, here is how officials answer to their public when a super stealth drone is lost to opposing forces (Pentagon Press Conference on Iranian video of the drone):


8 December 2011

Pentagon on the Iranian RQ-170 Drone Capture

Defense.gov News Transcript: DOD News Briefing with George Little and Capt. Kirby from the Pentagon

Presenter: Pentagon Press Secretary George Little and Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Media Operations Capt. John Kirby December 08, 2011

DOD News Briefing with George Little and Capt. Kirby from the Pentagon

GEORGE LITTLE: Good afternoon. Just a couple of announcements before we throw it over to questions.

The White House announced today that on Saturday President Obama, Vice President Biden and Dr. Jill Biden will attend the 112th edition of the annual Army versus Navy football game at FedEx field. I wanted to let you know that Secretary Panetta will also attend.

CAPT. JOHN KIRBY: Otherwise Navy versus Army.

MR. LITTLE: (Laughs.) More information will be forthcoming as it is available.

Also, the Air Force, at 4:00 this afternoon in the briefing room, will conduct a press briefing on issues related to Dover and other Air Force matters that you may want to ask about.

With that, I think that's it.

Lita.

Q: Acknowledging that this video only just came out and that you're probably still looking at it, can you give us at least an initial assessment as to whether or not the aircraft in the video is legitimately -- could be a Sentinel or not? And if so, can you give us any idea about whether or not you agree it could have landed somehow -- or somewhat intact?

CAPT. KIRBY: No. (Chuckles.) No, we're just not -- we've -- certainly we've had a chance to look at the images, and there are folks looking at them. But we're not going to comment beyond that.

Q: But --

Q: Do you -- do you believe the Iranians have the drone?

CAPT. KIRBY: Just -- we're not going to comment about this particular topic.

Q: But you did put out a statement last week saying you'd lost a drone, and you thought this might be it.

MR. LITTLE: We said, you know, all week that, you know, we did have a UAV go missing. But you know, when it comes to sensitive reconnaissance missions, we call them sensitive for a reason. So we're not going to add to what we said over the weekend.

Q: But don't you think you at least owe the public at least a general assessment as to whether we should reject out of hand that this is -- you know, that this is -- this could be one of these aircraft, if it's -- looks like a mock-up or a model or -- shouldn't there be at least some truth-telling here that would at least put some reality to the claims?

MR. LITTLE: I don't have anything to add to what John said.

And that is that we're not going to comment one way or the other at this -- at this stage.

Q: But to be clear on that, you're not -- you can't call this a fake; that you can't say categorically what the Iranians have put out is a fake.

MR. LITTLE: I'm not commenting at all.

Q: John, when you said that you have people looking at it right now, what exactly are they looking for?

CAPT. KIRBY: I just mean folks are -- you know, folks are obviously looking at the imagery as well, but -- and we certainly wouldn't even -- no matter what you might end up thinking about the imagery, I don't think you're going to -- you know, you're going to get confirmation one way or another here. I mean, we're just not going to talk about these kinds of missions and these kinds of capabilities.

Q: Why are military personnel looking at Iranian video of a CIA mission?

CAPT. KIRBY: I think it's -- I wouldn't characterize it just as military personnel looking. We've seen the imagery. There are folks that are looking at it. But again, we're just not going to get into the specifics of these particular kinds of missions. We're just not.

Q: You did acknowledge that a drone went missing in Iran. Was the president --

CAPT. KIRBY: No, we did not.

MR. LITTLE: We acknowledged that a drone went missing.

Q: OK. Was the president ever briefed on plans to retrieve or destroy the missing drone?

MR. LITTLE: I'm not going to comment on -- on that either.

Q: Is the drone you reported missing still missing?

CAPT. KIRBY: We haven't recovered the drone that we believe is missing.

Q: Have you asked anyone for it back?

MR. LITTLE: I'm unaware of any request for the return of a UAV that went missing.

Q: On that missing drone, what kind of latent data are you concerned that it possesses?

MR. LITTLE: I'm not going to comment on the specific capabilities and technical aspects of platforms that are tied to sensitive reconnaissance missions.

Q: Do you think that it might get in the wrong hands, the U.S. technology?

MR. LITTLE: Technology falling into the wrong hands? Well, separate and apart from this specific instance -- I'm not confirming anything -- when U.S. technology falls into the wrong hands, it's always a concern.

Q: Without giving us too much on the technology, can you say if this is a bigger deal than what was lost in the bin Laden raid with the helicopter tail? Is this more sensitive?

MR. LITTLE: I'm not going to make that kind of characterization here.

Q: And just a follow-up of that, Iranians have also claimed that this drone was used for a key -- (inaudible) -- raid. Do you have any comment on that claim?

MR. LITTLE: No.

CAPT. KIRBY: No, we don't.

Pentagon on the Iranian RQ-170 Drone Capture

 

[Hussein]

Artesh, the regular army, said they did it . Not the Sepah.