Iran Shows Alleged U.S. Stealth Drone on TV

[Teh One Who Knocks]

ABC News


http://i.imgur.com/qGKip.jpg

An aircraft that appears to be the highly sensitive American stealth drone lost in Iran looks intact and with little visible damage in new video broadcast on Iranian television today.

The cream-colored RQ-170 Sentinel is shown sitting on display in front of a patriotic Iranian poster as two uniformed military men examine the drone's radar-eluding batwing frame.

The Iranian military claims it downed the drone through a cyber attack as it was flying through Iranian airspace last week. U.S. military officials said the drone was not flying over Iran, but rather in western Afghanistan, and suffered an innocent malfunction before gliding into Iranian airspace.

Pentagon spokesperson Capt. John Kirby told reporters Monday there was no indication the drone was brought down by "hostile activity of any kind."

U.S. officials told ABC News Tuesday the drone had been on a secret surveillance mission for the Central Intelligence Agency when its operators lost control. The CIA declined to comment both when Iran claimed to have the drone and after video surfaced today. Iran's semi-official Fars News Agency reported that the drone was designed to automatically destroy sensitive data in the case of a malfunction, but in this case it "failed to do so."

The RQ-170, known as the Beast of Kandahar, is one of America's most advanced unarmed surveillance drones -- so sensitive that the Air Force did not even acknowledge its existence until last year. It was reportedly used to keep tabs on the man believed to be Osama bin Laden during the Navy SEAL mission that took out the terror leader in Pakistan in May.

[Acid Trip]

Wow, not a scratch on it. That's bad.

[Arkady Renko]

might be a plastic replica, who knows?

[Teh One Who Knocks]

If they are so advanced and so sensitive, why do they not build a self destruct capability into them? Granted, they want to try and save them if possible, but if they fall into enemy hands, isn't that worse than blowing one up and losing the money involved in it?

[DemonGeminiX]

Maybe we should go in and get it back.

:-k
























:-s

Feels like I posted that before.

[Teh One Who Knocks]

Maybe we should go in and get it back.

:-k
























:-s

Feels like I posted that before.

According to the news last night, the DoD considered it

[Muddy]

Ouch..

[Acid Trip]

If they are so advanced and so sensitive, why do they not build a self destruct capability into them? Granted, they want to try and save them if possible, but if they fall into enemy hands, isn't that worse than blowing one up and losing the money involved in it?

From the story:

The drone was designed to automatically destroy sensitive data in the case of a malfunction, but in this case it "failed to do so."

[Muddy]

From the story:

The drone was designed to automatically destroy sensitive data in the case of a malfunction, but in this case it "failed to do so."

That is sweet...

[Teh One Who Knocks]

From the story:

The drone was designed to automatically destroy sensitive data in the case of a malfunction, but in this case it "failed to do so."

I'm not talking about destroying the data it collected, I'm talking about blowing the whole damn thing to little pieces

[Teh One Who Knocks]

Official Confirms Authenticity of Iranian TV Images Showing Lost U.S. Drone
By Jennifer Griffin - FoxNews.com


A senior U.S. official has confirmed to Fox News that images aired by Iranian state television do in fact show the secret U.S. drone that went down last week in eastern Iran.

"Yep, that's it," the official told Fox News. "And it's intact."

U.S. officials had been expecting the video to appear. The footage, which shows the aircraft intact, confirms the Iranians have custody of the drone but appears to refute Iranian claims that it shot down the RQ-170 drone.

With early knowledge that the aircraft had likely remained intact, the senior U.S. official also told Fox News that President Obama was presented with three separate options for retrieving or destroying the drone. The president ultimately decided not to proceed with any of the plans because it could have been seen as an act of war, the official told Fox News.

Among the options the U.S. considered were sending in a special-ops team to retrieve the drone; sending in a team to blow up the aircraft; and launching an airstrike to destroy it.

NATO initially said the drone may have been one that was flying a mission over western Afghanistan before operators "lost control" of it. Officials have since acknowledged that the drone was part of a joint CIA-military reconnaissance mission.

One official told Fox News on Thursday that the incident is a huge loss and makes the top-secret helicopter tail lost during the Usama bin Laden raid in Pakistan "look like a pittance." The official said there are real fears the Iranians will share this technology with the Russians and the Chinese, in addition to using it themselves.

[redred]

I'm not talking about destroying the data it collected, I'm talking about blowing the whole damn thing to little pieces

but then if it crashed in the middle of a school for example you could have a shit storm head back your way:-k

[Teh One Who Knocks]

but then if it crashed in the middle of a school for example you could have a shit storm head back your way:-k

They shouldn't have built a school in the blast zone then :hand:

[JoeyB]

According to the news last night, the DoD considered it

So, isn't that also admitting they have the thing?

Listen, 'going in' to get it would be an overt act of war. Right now, we can write off the drone incident as just that, an incident.

Though, I find it hard to believe we aren't sending waves of spy planes over that country. If someone was doing to us what we are doing to them, there would be hell to pay. We really need to rethink our international strategies.

[Muddy]

We may want to deliver that 30 minute or less pizza on this one...

[redred]

They shouldn't have built a school in the blast zone then :hand:

:lol:

[DemonGeminiX]

We really need to rethink our international strategies.

http://woody.typepad.com/files/map_middle_east_problem_solved.jpg

:tup:

[Teh One Who Knocks]

:bazinga:

[Softdreamer]

I saw this story and thought..


"Please sir, can I have my ball back?"

[Deepsepia]

might be a plastic replica, who knows?

Speaking as a man, who, in his youth, built and crashed many model aircraft . . .

didn't this one land nicely? I mean, not a scratch . . .

Now its always possible that someone hijacked the control system and actually landed it, which would be a very different story.

But just watching the video, my two cents is that there's more to this story

What?

Hmmm . . . hard to say. Where do you think the Iranians do complex technical assessments and engineering, anyway? Hard thing to find out, really . . .

http://picload.org/image/rgriagp/trojan-horse.jpg

[Godfather]

I've read a few novels written by Ex Seals/DEVGRU or Delta guys and they seem to have plenty of stories of HALO dropping into enemy territory and destroying unexploded Cruise Missiles or downed equipment.

They must have been pissed they weren't sent after thing one.

I've read a few articles where speculation is made that Iran doesn't have the means to exploit this technology. That's probably just wishful thinking though.

[Deepsepia]

I've read a few novels written by Ex Seals/DEVGRU or Delta guys and they seem to have plenty of stories of HALO dropping into enemy territory and destroying unexploded Cruise Missiles or downed equipment.

They must have been pissed they weren't sent after thing one.

I've read a few articles where speculation is made that Iran doesn't have the means to exploit this technology. That's probably just wishful thinking though.

Isn't it peculiar, a US drone fails in flight . . . no backup beacon, no one drops a small explosive on it, nor does it have even a small charge inside it to destroy sensitive stuff.

So unusual, when you think about it . .

[DemonGeminiX]

Isn't it peculiar, a US drone fails in flight . . . no backup beacon, no one drops a small explosive on it, nor does it have even a small charge inside it to destroy sensitive stuff.

So unusual, when you think about it . .

Either you're suggesting something I really don't want to acknowledge or this is the result of complete idiocy. As I've implied, I'd rather entertain option B.

[Deepsepia]

Either you're suggesting something I really don't want to acknowledge or this is the result of complete idiocy. As I've implied, I'd rather entertain option B.

Oh, I have no idea. But if I were to bet, I'd put my money on a Trojan.

One open factual question: if power fails, does this thing
a) glide smoothly
or
b) stall and spin

?

Generally, flying wings are aerodynamically unstable, and stealth aircraft are particularly so, with all their control surfaces tucked away . . .

[Godfather]

Either you're suggesting something I really don't want to acknowledge or this is the result of complete idiocy. As I've implied, I'd rather entertain option B.

For sure.

Honestly though, probably just more pc or bureaucratic red tape, unable to do what needs to get done... even the special forces community who would normally take care of this kind of mishap has their hands tied. Just read Marcus Luttrell's book... lot of good (expensive) men died because they hesitated to do what was the only real option for that mission, out of fear of what might show up on the 6 o'clock news.

I'm not much of a conspiracy believer :lol: Occam's razor.

[FBD]

They took this thing's guidance out with an EMP device. That's why the preventative measures failed.

And in yet another spectacular failure of...well, practically everything, but notably foreign matter here again, Obama decides that its not even worth blowing up - let's just let Iran, Russia, China, all have this stealth technology fucking gift wrapped here you go! We cant possibly risk pissing anyone off :roll:

Obama is a novice asshole that should never have made it into office. Fucking loser, you cant have a leader of a country that doesnt have any interest in making the country better, only has interest in making it into something its not.

And people were worried about what Cain would do with foreign policy? :lol: That thing would have had a missile blow it up before anyone knew of it if our CiC had half a brain.

[Muddy]

Speaking as a man, who, in his youth, built and crashed many model aircraft . . .

didn't this one land nicely? I mean, not a scratch . . .

Now its always possible that someone hijacked the control system and actually landed it, which would be a very different story.

But just watching the video, my two cents is that there's more to this story

What?

Hmmm . . . hard to say. Where do you think the Iranians do complex technical assessments and engineering, anyway? Hard thing to find out, really . . .

http://picload.org/image/rgriagp/trojan-horse.jpg


Good point...

[Arkady Renko]

maybe there's a suitcase nuke hidden in it