According to the Wikipedia, $154.4m buys a set of four drones, including the control link and the ground station.
Posted on 12/13/2011 11:17:42 AM PST by ColdOne
One of the Air Force’s premier drones crashed Tuesday morning in the Seychelles, the Indian Ocean archipelago that serves as a base for anti-piracy operations, as well as U.S. surveillance missions over Somalia.
The crash of the MQ-9 Reaper comes roughly two weeks after a U.S. drone went down in Iran.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
I smell a rat.
Ping.
Yup!
$50 million bucks....but no search and rescue costs.
Hmmmm.
Hmmmmm.
Both drones related to Muslim watching activities.
Both drones go down.
Hmmmmmm.
Hmmmmmm.
LA Times-Dec.13th 2011
REPORTING FROM BEIJING -- In a move that is raising concerns about an ascendant China expanding its reach in the Indian Ocean, Beijing said it is considering an offer by the Seychelles to use its ports for resupplying and refueling naval vessels. snip
The Seychelles government also said China had given its army two light aircraft and that Beijing had renewed a 2004 military cooperation agreement that allowed about 50 Seychelles soldiers to be trained in China.
And the smell is coming right from 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.
I am convinced someone has hacked this system. Read this article.
http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2011/10/drone-virus-kept-quiet/
Single vehicle costs are more in the $7-15M range. This is supposed to be the beauty of UAVs, you crash them and it's no big deal.
“I am convinced someone has hacked this system.”
I remember seeing that article. Its certainly possbile for our enemies to either take cotrol or at least break the link between the pilot and the drone.
compelling. main reason to keylog them would be to build your own control interface to take over and control them.
Aren’t the majority, if not all, drones related to Muslim watching?
Single unit prices...not including development costs divided over production don’t really tell me much. If you spent $1B in development and only produce 1 prototype then it cost $1B/unit, not the mere sum of its parts and assembly cost.
at present they are, but I doubt said countries could put a program like this on. More likely - china develops the virus and the tech to do whatever they are doing, and puts it out there to test it. Iran uses said tech to score a hole-in-one, getting an intact drone.
“it was not tractable by radar. “
No but it probably transmits
Unless someone wanted that drone to be captured.
According to the Wikipedia, $154.4m buys a set of four drones, including the control link and the ground station.
I dont doubt obama may not be unhappy but the keylogger virus puts is a pertinent data point.
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