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U.S. Military Sources: Iran Has Missing U.S. Drone
foxnews ^

Posted on 12/05/2011 8:42:02 PM PST by traumer

A U.S. super-secret spy plane believed to be in Iranian possession could be a major loss for the U.S. military -- and a major gain for Iran.

According to a senior U.S. military source with intimate knowledge of the Sentinel drone, the aircraft likely "wandered" into Iranian air space after losing contact with its handlers and is presumed to be intact since it is programmed to fly level and find a place to land, rather than crashing.

"This is a big prize in terms of technology," a senior U.S. military source told Fox News. The spy plane uses the same stealth technology as the drone used to monitor the compound during the raid that killed Usama bin Laden, U.S. military sources told Fox News on Monday. Military sources confirmed that the Iranians have the RQ-170 drone, which is so advanced that the U.S. Air Force has not distributed even a photo of it. However, they did not say that the Iranians shot down the spy plane, as was reported by Iran's official IRNA news agency.

IRNA quoted an unidentified Iranian military official saying Sunday that the spy plane was shot down by Iran's armed forces and suffered minor damage.. The official also warned of strong and crushing response to any violations of the country's airspace by American drone aircraft.

Earlier, the U.S.-led coalition in Afghanistan issued a statement saying the aircraft may have been a drone that operators lost contact with last week while it was flying a mission over neighboring western Afghanistan. A U.S. official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the classified nature of the incident, said the U.S. had "absolutely no indication" that the drone was shot down.

(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...


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To: Revolting cat!

Pernod is an absinthe I drank too much of at a bar in LeHavre, France, after a very rough crossing of the North Atlantic in the winter. Didn’t have enough money for a cab back to my ship, so I started walking. Next thing I remember was waking up in jail, and no body could speak English, and I couldn’t speak French.

Found out later I had walked onto the wrong ship, and where my cabin was on my ship was the location of that ship’s captain. I was told that I told that SOB to get out of my room! Lucky it was an American ship, and I only spent the night in jail.

No more absinthe for me.


81 posted on 12/06/2011 12:24:06 AM PST by B-Cause (The trouble with socialism is that eventually you run out of other people's money - Thatcher)
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To: ASA Vet; Rembrandt; mylife; ConorMacNessa

Seems to me that there are way too many screwups lately.....and in a very short period of time.


82 posted on 12/06/2011 1:08:23 AM PST by BIGLOOK (Keelhaul Congress!)
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To: traumer
Iran Has Missing U.S. Drone

Maybe they'll go peeking around at the computer programs and download some of that Stuxnet or Confinger or whatever.

83 posted on 12/06/2011 1:33:02 AM PST by Lancey Howard
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To: ASA Vet

Wonder if it was shot down?


84 posted on 12/06/2011 3:41:08 AM PST by ColdSteelTalon (Light is fading to shadow, and casting its shroud over all we have known...)
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To: ColdSteelTalon
Wonder if it was shot down?

Or someone on the inside (not inside the drone) landed it for them? As in Clinton gave China staging technology. Obama gives Iran stealth technology?
85 posted on 12/06/2011 3:45:16 AM PST by aruanan
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To: aruanan

We may never know...


86 posted on 12/06/2011 4:04:13 AM PST by ColdSteelTalon (Light is fading to shadow, and casting its shroud over all we have known...)
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To: mylife

A self destruct protocol is critical.

Gene Roddenberry got that. Why doesn’t the Pentagon?


87 posted on 12/06/2011 6:51:15 AM PST by Buckeye McFrog
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To: traumer
According to a senior U.S. military source with intimate knowledge of the Sentinel drone, the aircraft likely "wandered" into Iranian air space after losing contact with its handlers and is presumed to be intact since it is programmed to fly level and find a place to land, rather than crashing.

You'd think it would be pretty easy to have GPS onboard to give it a list of coordinates where never to land if communication with handlers is lost and where to blow up if forced down.
88 posted on 12/06/2011 7:41:59 AM PST by aruanan
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To: mylife

“Why use a transmitter? It could just be an impact sensor , an accelerometer.”

I don’t recall saying that a transmitter was the only choice.


89 posted on 12/06/2011 8:38:07 PM PST by Rembrandt (.. AND the donkey you rode in on.)
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To: Rembrandt

It was just a thought.
And you could disable the accelerometer with a relay via transmitter if you were landing it in friendly territory.


90 posted on 12/06/2011 8:59:58 PM PST by mylife (The Roar Of The Masses Could Be Farts)
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