Posted on 12/08/2011 9:46:47 AM PST by bigbob
Could this be the smoking electron in the alleged unmanned air vehicle (UAV) incident over Iran?
The original reports that Iran "shot down" a Lockheed Martin RQ-170 Sentinel appear to be misleading. Iranian news agency reports credited the army's electronic warfare unit with bringing down the UAV, but apparently in a way that limited the amount of damage on landing or impact.
Only six weeks ago, Russia announced delivering the Avtobaza ground-based electronic intelligence and jamming system (shown above) to Iran. Most Russian weapons exports to Iran are blocked, including the proposed transfer of the S-300 surface to air missile system. But there is a key difference between a SAM battery and a jamming system. The S-300 can vastly complicate a strike on an Iranian nuclear site at Natanz or Qoms. A jamming system, such as the Avtobaza, is unlikely to be used to defend such a site because it could interfere with the radar of the S-300 or the Tor-M1 SAM battery.
The Avtobaza, moreover, is designed to jam side-looking and fire control radars on aircraft and manipulate the guidance and control systems of incoming enemy missiles. It would be the perfect tool to target and perhaps infiltrate the communications link that allows a UAV to be controlled from a remote location. The incident, of course, has not been confirmed with visual evidence of the allegedly captured RQ-170. Unlike 50 years ago, when the Soviet Union shot down the Lockheed U-2, the Iranians will not be able to produce a captured Francis Gary Powers. In 1961, the Soviets appeared to destroy their credibility by releasing imagery of the wreckage of the wrong aircraft -- a luckless MiG possibly shot down by mistake in the fusillade aimed at Powers' U-2. When the Soviets produced Powers, who survived and was captured, the world finally had undeniable proof.
So there is no script in the propaganda textbook for these kinds of incidents. They tend to evolve in their own way. Iran may never produce evidence to back up their claims, or they might later today.
Interestingly, the International Security Assistance Force has made no effort to deny Iran's claims. Instead, the NATO headquarters in Kabul issued a statement acknowledging the loss of one of their UAVs over western Afghanistan last week. The statement also suggested the Iranians may have simply found the misplaced UAV for them. It may be important that NATO officials did not deny Iran's claims that the UAV was the RQ-170, which is known to operate from Kandahar where it was originally spotted.
The Obama administration is reaping what they have sown with their inept attempts at creating a foreign policy that first and foremost is based on an extension of US interests.
Well, if this system was used, you can believe the data is being analyzed and countermeasures are being developed.
Ha ha, thats a good one.
I hope it has some sort of normally closed circuitry for when comm is lost it goes BOOM.
Probably not though.
I think the Russians simply under-cut the French on this order.
I knew they stole that aircraft.....I’d say that is an act of war....time to flatten every airstrip in the country.
You do know they already have domestically produce their own UAV’s? So they have the knowledge required to take this apart and learn from it..
I entertain great doubts about the ability of the US to “flatten every airstrip in the country” without sustaining unacceptable losses. Now that the great success of Iraq is winding down is it time to begin anew? Maybe another success like Libya, where doctors cannot work anymore due to the breakdown of basic law and order.
The Chinese are already enroute to reverse engineer it. I’m sure the military was ready to go with strike from a B-2 or a cruise missile, but Obama is afraid of upsetting Iran, and quashed the plan. It should’ve been destroyed!
Remote control robots are a stupid method to fight a real war. Now that they can be reverse engineered they can be hacked to fight for the other side.
Too many video games, only men on the ground hold ground. This has been the Air Force blind spot for generations.
We would eat Iran for lunch and have plenty left over for the next thugocracy...with a different CIC of course....
Or did our "Dear Leader" just pull a Lyndon Baines Johnson and has his Gulf of Tonkin Incident / USS Maddox Incident?....
He needs a reason to strike Iran and raise his pitiful numbers in the polls.
Does anyone know if Carville is on as a consultant to him these days? Wag the Dog....
He needs a reason to strike Iran and raise his pitiful numbers in the polls.
Does anyone know if Carville is on as a consultant to him these days? Wag the Dog....
But without people (pilots) involved it just doesn't have the same effect.
I doubt even Zero and the MSM could pull it off...
You're on the wrong side of history on that one. Robots on the ground can hold ground too. It's not the Air Force's job to hold ground, they control the air. Flying robots are easier to program and require less fuel than ground robots which is why they are being developed first.
These are programed to return to base if they lose connection. How was this changed?
These are no able to be tracked by radar. How was it found?
This is not damaged. who and how did they land it?
I can not tell you how big a deal this is on so many levels. The communication encryption in these is priceless. If someone has broke that it is going to be a very expensive retrofit on many levels.
I have to believe someone in the ISI,Egypt or the White House has sold us out.
Officials at Creech Air Force Base in Nevada knew for two weeks about a virus infecting the drone “cockpits” there. But they kept the information about the infection to themselves — leaving the unit that’s supposed to serve as the Air Force’s cybersecurity specialists in the dark. The network defenders at the 24th Air Force learned of the virus by reading about it in Danger Room.
The virus, which records the keystrokes of remote pilots as their drones fly over places like Afghanistan, is now receiving attention at the highest levels; the four-star general who oversees the Air Force’s networks was briefed on the infection this morning. But for weeks, it stayed (you will pardon the expression) below the radar: a local problem that local network administrators were determined to fix on their own.
“It was not highlighted to us,” says a source involved with Air Force network operations. “When your article came out, it was like, ‘What is this?’”
http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2011/10/drone-virus-kept-quiet/
The drones are still flying over warzones from Afghanistan to Pakistan to Yemen. There’s no sign, yet, that the virus either damaged any of the systems associated with the remotely piloted aircraft or transmitted sensitive information outside the military chain of command — although three military insiders caution that a full-blown, high-level investigation into the virus is only now getting underway.
They used China like the Serbs.
I read here, I believe, that the drone ran out of fuel and landed. Now I think the DD(drone driver) must have a fuel gauge on the instrument panel. Someone either screwed up or let distractions interfere with their duties.
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