Posted on 11/05/2022 8:42:42 AM PDT by posterchild
Hours after Iran state TV displayed the cream-colored American bat-wing RQ-170 "Sentinel" drone – its undercarriage hidden by banners of a US flag, with stars replaced by skulls and marked with anti-US slogans – Iranian officials said the spy craft was proof of enduring US hostility toward Iran.
"Iran will target all US military bases around the world," in case of further violations, warned conservative lawmaker Mohammad Kossari today. Iran's response would be "terrifying."
US officials confirmed with "high confidence" that the drone displayed by Iran is almost certainly the one reported lost last by US forces in Afghanistan last week. It was on an intelligence mission to hunt evidence in Iran of nuclear weapons work.
(Excerpt) Read more at csmonitor.com ...
AviationIntel also says Iran recently received from Russia an advanced mobile jamming and intelligence system called “Avtobaza” that could have detected the drone and perhaps jammed its communications links.
“There is no reason why [that] system could not have detected the Sentinel’s electronic trail and either jammed it and/or have alerted fighter aircraft and SAM [surface-to-air missile] installations as to its whereabouts,” said AviationIntel on its site.
I seem to remember the loss of one of our stealth airplanes in the clinton attack on kosova...too..hmmmm
YUP!!!
If Russia has to purchase high tech munitions from the towelheads, you know they’re in trouble...
You are correct.
ValJar must have told her Iranian handlers that they could keep it for a while.
It was eventually returned after a long time.
Reverse engineering takes time, of course.
A senior US military source “with intimate knowledge of the Sentinel drone” was paraphrased by Fox News days ago as saying that the lost craft was “presumed to be intact since it is programmed to fly level and find a place to land, rather than crashing.”
I ain’t buying it. Obama gave it to them.
Like;
‘Independence Day’
I have a conspiracy theory about that, too.
December 17, 2011 weblog RQ-170 drone's ambush facts spilled by Iranian engineer by Nancy Owano , Phys.org Iran’s story about the electronic ambush of America’s sophisticated drone, the RQ-170 Sentinel, is that their experts used their technology savvy to trick the drone into landing where the drone thought was its actual base in Afghanistan but instead they made it land in Iran. They used reverse engineering techniques that they had developed after exploring less sophisticated American drones captured or shot down in recent years. They were able to figure how to exploit a navigational weakness in the drone’s system. "The GPS navigation is the weakest point," the Iranian engineer told the newspaper. Iranian electronic warfare specialists were able to cut off the communications link by jamming on the communications. The engineer said that they forced the drone into autopilot. That state is where “the bird loses its brain." The Iranians reconfigured the drone's GPS coordinates and they used precise latitudinal and longitudinal data to force the drone to land on its own. In doing so the Iranian team did not have to bother about cracking remote control signals and communications from a control center in the U.S., and the RQ170 suffered only minimal damage, according to the report. - https://phys.org/news/2011-12-rq-drone-ambush-facts-iranian.html
Related:
Jun 20, 2019 2:36 PM The Drone Iran Shot Down Was a $220M Surveillance Monster The Global Hawk can fly at an altitude of 55,000 feet and stay aloft for 30 hours straight. Early Thursday morning, Iran shot down a United States unmanned aerial vehicle over the Strait of Hormuz, which runs between the Persian Gulf and the Gulf of Oman. Iran identified the drone as an RQ-4A Global Hawk, a $220 million UAV that acts as a massive surveillance platform in the sky. The attack marks an escalation with tensions already running high between the US and Iran—particularly because of the value and technical sensitivity of the downed drone.
Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps said on Thursday that the Northrup Grumman-made Global Hawk—part of a multibillion-dollar program that dates back to 2001—had entered Iranian airspace and crashed in Iranian waters; US Central Command confirmed the time and general location of the attack, but insists that the drone was flying in international airspace. - https://www.wired.com/story/iran-global-hawk-drone-surveillance/
Sept. 2, 2022 Iran Seizes, Then Releases Two U.S. Drones, Officials Say The Navy called a similar incident this week “flagrant” and “unwarranted.”
The crew of the Iranian naval ship that captured the drones, Saildrone Explorers that were operating near each other, hoisted the vessels onto their warship, the Jamaran, and covered them with tarp, one official said. On request from the U.S. Navy, the Iranian crew released the drones Friday morning, the officials said. It was the second such incident this week, following an Iranian attempt in the Persian Gulf overnight Monday to capture another one of the same type of American naval drone. The U.S. Navy said the action was “flagrant” and “unwarranted.” - https://www.nytimes.com/2022/09/02/us/politics/iran-navy-drones-seized.html
Aug. 30, 2022, 2:08 PM EDT Video shows Iran trying to capture a U.S. drone By Courtney Kube An Iranian ship tried and failed Monday night to capture a U.S. Navy sea-based drone in the Persian Gulf, according to the Navy. The USS Thunderbolt patrol ship saw the Shahid Baziar towing the sea drone, known as a Saildrone Explorer. The Thunderbolt identified itself as a U.S. ship and demanded release of the Saildrone at least five times, but the Iranians never responded, a U.S. defense official said. The Thunderbolt then sent a rigid-hulled inflatable boat to cut the tow line. The Thunderbolt had also notified the 5th Fleet of the incident, and it launched a MH-60S Sea Hawk helicopter from Bahrain. After about four hours, the Iranian ship cut the tow line and let the U.S. drone go. - https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/video-shows-iran-trying-capture-us-drone-rcna45499
I think it’s when the plane opened the bomb bay doors the Serbs could detect it and shot it down. But not sure.
“Obama gave it to them.”
My thoughts as well.
I read the same thing at the time. But the real problem was that the Stealth Fighters mission planners fell into a routine using the same approach track night after night. Put a Serb agent outside the Italian airbase with a cell phone and suddenly you have an accurate eta and know where, generally, to point your radars to ‘look’ for that instant when the F-117A becomes visible.
Stealth isn’t just a technology. It’s also has a large mission-planning component. The USAF may have gotten cocky, or cut some corners in an effort to serve their political masters. Who knows?
Malfunction i believe
In order to steal the RQ-170 the Iranians and those helping them needed to have very precise information on the flight profile and schedule. They also needed detailed information on systems installed in the aircraft.
That kind of information could only be obtained via espionage and the Obama Admin staffers had this information in their possession.
China–Russia relations, also known as Sino-Russian relations
The Grinning Jackass.
Obama probably had them deliver it to Iran.
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.