Iran claims to down US stealth spy drone

Re: Chinese UAV & UCAV development

Well I can see the diversion. Some reports are saying the UAV crashed nearly intact. Sounds like it could've been taken down by electronic warfare means. The bigger possible story is Iran by their own capability was not only able to detect but able to bring down a high tech UAV with supposedly advanced stealth shaping. What does that say about everything else?

With UAVs and all the talk about being the future, I've always wondered how easy would it to be able to jam communications. Never seen anyone talk about it. I mean yeah it will still be able to follow a pre-programmed flight but I would have to think being able to cut-off communications and other telemetry would defang a UAV tremendously. Now if it's true that the Iranians electronically brought this UAV down, a dark cloud has moved over the future of UAVs. At least by remotely.

Re: Chinese UAV & UCAV development

@hendrik -- well what would make the RQ-170 a potential goldmine? The stealth coatings, shaping is second rate (on purpose) so it won't be of much benefit to China or Russia who are already well into development with their 5th gen fighters, and likely have their own flying wing ucav's underay too. The propulsion is a small turbofan likely the same as used in the A-10 so it's hardly cutting edge.
The sensors? Well the optics are already said to be dated and it's not like China or Russia are new to EO, ISR could be interesting, but hardly a goldmine given it's small size.

Sure RQ-170 is much superior to Predator or Reaper in the surveillance role, but will it be that useful to China or Russia? I doubt it. Maybe they can crack some ISR related hardware like they got with the EP-3 years back but the value of this plane imo, is being overblown.

Re: Chinese UAV & UCAV development

AssassinsMace said:

... What was the joke around the office almost the instant after Iran announced possession of an RQ-170 Sentinel?
"Look for the RQ-170 copy at the Zhuhai [air show] next year."...

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And the joke (or maybe they don't think it's a joke) around Chinese military forums is: "Order an immediate evacuation from the Tehran embassy, american will bomb it (again) soon!"

Re: Chinese UAV & UCAV development

danielchin said:

And the joke (or maybe they don't think it's a joke) around Chinese military forums is: "Order an immediate evacuation from the Tehran embassy, american will bomb it (again) soon!"

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Think that's 60% no joke, because the memory of 1999 will live in infamy...

Re: Chinese UAV & UCAV development

RQ-170 like anyother drone,has one achilles heel, her signal could be pick up and track by ELINT.

Re: Chinese UAV & UCAV development

With UAVs and all the talk about being the future, I've always wondered how easy would it to be able to jam communications. Never seen anyone talk about it. I mean yeah it will still be able to follow a pre-programmed flight but I would have to think being able to cut-off communications and other telemetry would defang a UAV tremendously

Click to expand...

I've wondered about this too. If an enemy could track the UAV on radar, it could also direct some jamming directly at it on all the radio spectrum it is known to communicate at.

Re: Chinese UAV & UCAV development

Bltizo said:

@hendrik -- well what would make the RQ-170 a potential goldmine? The stealth coatings, shaping is second rate (on purpose) so it won't be of much benefit to China or Russia who are already well into development with their 5th gen fighters, and likely have their own flying wing ucav's underay too. The propulsion is a small turbofan likely the same as used in the A-10 so it's hardly cutting edge.
The sensors? Well the optics are already said to be dated and it's not like China or Russia are new to EO, ISR could be interesting, but hardly a goldmine given it's small size.

Sure RQ-170 is much superior to Predator or Reaper in the surveillance role, but will it be that useful to China or Russia? I doubt it. Maybe they can crack some ISR related hardware like they got with the EP-3 years back but the value of this plane imo, is being overblown.

Click to expand...

Bill Sweetman and aviation week try to control the damage by toning down the significant of RQ 170 capture by the Iranian. Kind of strange coming from aviation week , since this people always extoll the supremacy of US technology specially UAV or UCAV as the silver bullet that answer to all their prayer, cheap, stealth, no pilot, long loitering time,

I don't know why you call 10 cm optical accuracy it outdated . The best of Chinese optical is 1/2 m if that is true. If I am not wrong everybody and their grandmother sing praise not too long ago when sentinel was instrumental in killing Bin Laden.

They even contemplate commando raid Now if this is outdated why do they need to go to that extent.

News of American discussions about a possible covert mission to trace the doomed drone emerged in the Washington Post.

The RQ-170 UAV, dubbed The Beast of Kandahar by some media outlets, was flying over eastern Iran when it apparently malfunctioned and went missing.

Re: Chinese UAV & UCAV development

^ So you're basically saying better optics -- if chinese industries are not able to produce similarly capable ones -- would consist a "goldmine"?

Bill sweetman noted the RQ-170's second rate stealth design when we first got pictures of the RQ-170, saying it was so sensitive technology wouldn't fall into wrong hands in case this plane got shot down or malfunctioned. Well that's happened. No sensitive techology has fallen into wrong hands because there isn't much sensitive technology.

Yes everybody sang praise for the RQ-170 after the OBL killing (SEALs, blackhawks, chinooks all received priase jeez) -- does that mean there's anything onboard that would be a "goldmine" to the chinese or russians?

There is no need to control the damage of this downing because there is no damage to control. The RQ-170 was designed to do its job, which includes having a high likely hood of being shot down.

Re: Chinese UAV & UCAV development

Here's a video from Iranian TV displaying the RQ-170. To me it's looks a little fake for some reason. Well if it is it, that is textbook "intact."

[video=youtube;JiXlHtBMejg]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JiXlHtBMejg&feature=feedu[/video]

Re: Chinese UAV & UCAV development

Here's a BBC story and their video in the link.




Iran shows film of captured US droneAdvertisementThe BBC's James Reynolds says the video appears to support Iran's claims


Iranian TV has shown the first video footage of an advanced US drone aircraft that Tehran says it downed near the Afghan border.

Images show Iranian military officials inspecting the RQ-170 Sentinel stealth aircraft which appears to be undamaged.

US officials have acknowledged the loss of the unmanned plane, saying it had malfunctioned.

However, Iranian officials say its forces electronically hijacked the drone and steered it to the ground.

High-flying and hard to detect, America's RQ-170 Sentinel plane is the perfect stealth drone for peering into another country's secret sites without being caught.

One was used in May to feed back live footage of the US Navy Seal raid on Osama Bin Laden's compound in Pakistan.

So it is probably not the sort of hardware the CIA would ever like to fall into the hands of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps.

Opinion is divided on how the drone fell into "the wrong hands" and indeed what it was doing inside Iran.

But speculation is rife that this particular aircraft was flying deep inside Iran to gather intelligence and real-time video footage of Iran's nuclear sites.

This affair is both a political embarrassment and an intelligence setback for Washington.

Capture of drone a blow to CIA

BBC security correspondent Frank Gardner says the intact condition of the Sentinel tends to support their claim.

Iran's Press TV said that the Iranian army's "electronic warfare unit" brought down the drone on 4 December as it was flying over the city of Kashmar, about 140 miles (225km) from the Afghan border.

Nato said at the weekend that an unarmed reconnaissance aircraft had been flying a mission over western Afghanistan late last week when its operators lost control of it.

Pentagon officials have said they are concerned about Iran possibly acquiring information about the technology.

Iranian media said on Thursday that the foreign ministry had summoned the Swiss envoy to express its "strongest protest over the invasion of a US spy drone deep into its airspace".

Washington has no diplomatic relations with Iran and US affairs in the country are dealt with via the Swiss embassy in Tehran.

A statement said the ministry had asked for an immediate explanation and had demanded compensation from Washington.

A report in The New York Times on Thursday said the "stealth" drone had been part of a US surveillance programme mapping Iran's suspected nuclear sites.

The US and its allies suspect Iran of secretly trying to build a nuclear weapon - something Tehran strongly denies.

A recent report by the UN's nuclear watchdog said Iran had carried out tests "relevant to the development of a nuclear device".