Posted on 06/10/2016 7:51:51 PM PDT by Jet Jaguar
On 4 December 2011, an American Lockheed Martin RQ-170 Sentinel unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) was captured by Iranian forces near the city of Kashmar in northeastern Iran. The Iranian government announced that the UAV was brought down by its cyberwarfare unit which commandeered the aircraft and safely landed it, after initial reports from Western news sources disputedly claimed that it had been "shot down".[1] The United States government initially denied the claims but later President Obama acknowledged that the downed aircraft was a US drone and requested that Iran return it.
The government of the United States initially claimed that its forces in Afghanistan had lost control of a UAV on 4 December 2011 and that there was a possibility that this is the vehicle that crashed near Kashmar. According to unnamed U.S. officials, a U.S. UAV operated by the Central Intelligence Agency was flying on the Afghan side of the Afghanistan-Iran border when its operators lost control of the vehicle.[10][11] There have been reports that "foreign officials and American experts who have been briefed on the effort" state that the crashed UAV was taking part in routine surveillance of Iranian nuclear facilities inside Iranian airspace.[12]
The drone appeared to be largely intact, except for possible minor visible damage on its left wing. Dan Goure, an analyst at the Lexington Institute, stated the largely intact airframe ruled out the possibility of an engine or navigational malfunction: "Either this was a cyber/electronic warfare attack system that brought the system down or it was a glitch in the command-and-control system."[13] At least one US source admitted that Iran could have interrupted the data-link and brought it to a soft landing.[14] Some US officials stated the drone broke into three pieces during impact. They claimed that it was reassembled
(Excerpt) Read more at en.wikipedia.org ...
Just some thoughts tonight.
Iran got as much info as a Dog looking at an empty food bowl.
Why do you say that?
I think Iran has the goods on Clinton and Obama.
What else explains the horrible nuclear deal payoff Obama and Kerry gave Iran?
Fellow travelers. Their handlers are Valerie Jarrett and Huma Abedin (through Hillary).
So much cryptography to get into these things and then the Intel is sent out.
Just nothing to see.
Except they get an opportunity to study electronics package to determine component vendors, IC chip mfgrs, electronic specs, signal analysis, black box architectural testing, determining further command/control/data vulnerabilities, and most importantly the prestige of co-opting premiere American military technology and humiliating us with showcasing that spoil of war.
RE: “Just nothing to see.”
I would be surprised if expensive drones like this did not have a “return home” mode when they lose their data link. Something that makes them return autonomously to friendly airspace, far from jammers, with line of sight communications with the friendlies. My bet would be that it suffered a mechanical failure. The fact that it did not catch fire seems to indicate that it ran out of fuel, perhaps circling waiting for a command.
Back eons ago, when I was a CTT in the Navy, I was given a pre-mission briefing of “you’ve got 1 week to figure out how to record video, RF, SpecAn shots, and anything else you see on a laptop, and magtape.”. We then packed up everything and went on Ft. Huachuca for TAD. Worked with several companies on different iterations of UAVs. Pretty cool stuff.
Back then, everything (command and control, video down link, etc.) was sent in the clear, unencrypted. My report was if I can see what you’re seeing, I can fihire out where you are and blow you out of the sky.
Cool stuff,
UAV’s basically plastic models and
use once , throw away.
Electronics Made in China.
The one that was “captured” ,well,,,
Obviously a defective unit.
China’s drone,,
From a year ago ???
Exact copy of our
Work Horse ,Reaper.
Do the math.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.