.U.S. Military Sources: Iran Has Missing U.S. Drone
Iran appears to be in possession of one of America's most sophisticated weapons, a super-secret spy plane whose stealth technology is the same as the drone used to monitor the compound during the raid that killed Usama bin Laden, U.S. military sources told Fox News on Monday.
Military sources confirmed that the Iranians have the RQ-170 drone, which is so advanced that the U.S. Air Force has not distributed even a photo of it. However, they did not say that the Iranians shot down the spy plane, as was reported by Iran's official IRNA news agency.
IRNA quoted an unidentified Iranian military official saying Sunday that the spy plane was shot down by Iran's armed forces and suffered minor damage.. The official also warned of strong and crushing response to any violations of the country's airspace by American drone aircraft.
Earlier, the U.S.-led coalition in Afghanistan issued a statement saying the aircraft may have been a drone that operators lost contact with last week while it was flying a mission over neighboring western Afghanistan.
A U.S. official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the classified nature of the incident, said the U.S. had "absolutely no indication" that the drone was shot down.
Iran is locked in a dispute with the U.S. and its allies over Tehran's disputed nuclear program, which the West believes is aimed at developing nuclear weapons. Iran denies the accusations, saying its nuclear program is entirely peaceful and that it seeks to generate electricity and produce isotopes to treat medical patients.
Iran said in January that two pilotless spy planes it had shot down over its airspace were operated by the United States and offered to put them on public display. In July, Iranian military officials showed Russian experts several U.S. drones they said were shot down in recent years.
Also in July, Iranian lawmaker Ali Aghazadeh Dafsari said Iran's Revolutionary Guard shot down an unmanned U.S. spy plane that was trying to gather information on an underground uranium enrichment site.
The RQ-170 Sentinel is made by Lockheed Martin and is equipped with stealth technology. The $6 million stealth aircraft manufactured by Lockheed Martin has an RQ in its name to indicate it is unarmed.
Neither the Air Force nor manufacturer Lockheed Martin has released much information about the plane, dubbed "The Beast of Kandahar" in 2007 when its existence was finally confirmed.
"The RQ-170 Sentinel, a low observable UAV, was built by Lockheed Martin's Advanced Development Programs," Major Cristin L. Marposon, a public affairs officer for the USAF at the Pentagon, finally told FoxNews.com in 2009.
Sources said that the plane was designed for surveillance, not for attack.
Little is known about the plane beyond its intended goals, however, with no official images released or details about its composition. Leaked photographs purportedly of the craft depict a sleek, biwing design, intended to present a stealthier, harder to hit profile that other drones or other aircraft.
"The USAF has not issued any public release photos of the RQ-170," Melissa Dalton of Lockheed Martin told FoxNews.com
Early reports suggested that plane -- which supposedly has a wingspan of about 65 feet and can fly at around 50,000 feet -- would be made almost entirely without metal to help it dodge radar, and special paint provides additional stealth.
Sen. Mark Kirk, R-Ill., told Fox News on Monday that "it's less likely than not" that the Iranians did not shoot down the plane, but it had a mechanical or computer malfunction that caused it to go down. The Iranians then used it "for propaganda purposes."
"In the past, they have claimed these shoot-downs and been unable to produce any pieces of the drone, and currently, they have not exhibited any piece of the RQ-170 yet," he said.
FoxNews
Military sources confirmed that the Iranians have the RQ-170 drone, which is so advanced that the U.S. Air Force has not distributed even a photo of it. However, they did not say that the Iranians shot down the spy plane, as was reported by Iran's official IRNA news agency.
IRNA quoted an unidentified Iranian military official saying Sunday that the spy plane was shot down by Iran's armed forces and suffered minor damage.. The official also warned of strong and crushing response to any violations of the country's airspace by American drone aircraft.
Earlier, the U.S.-led coalition in Afghanistan issued a statement saying the aircraft may have been a drone that operators lost contact with last week while it was flying a mission over neighboring western Afghanistan.
A U.S. official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the classified nature of the incident, said the U.S. had "absolutely no indication" that the drone was shot down.
Iran is locked in a dispute with the U.S. and its allies over Tehran's disputed nuclear program, which the West believes is aimed at developing nuclear weapons. Iran denies the accusations, saying its nuclear program is entirely peaceful and that it seeks to generate electricity and produce isotopes to treat medical patients.
Iran said in January that two pilotless spy planes it had shot down over its airspace were operated by the United States and offered to put them on public display. In July, Iranian military officials showed Russian experts several U.S. drones they said were shot down in recent years.
Also in July, Iranian lawmaker Ali Aghazadeh Dafsari said Iran's Revolutionary Guard shot down an unmanned U.S. spy plane that was trying to gather information on an underground uranium enrichment site.
The RQ-170 Sentinel is made by Lockheed Martin and is equipped with stealth technology. The $6 million stealth aircraft manufactured by Lockheed Martin has an RQ in its name to indicate it is unarmed.
Neither the Air Force nor manufacturer Lockheed Martin has released much information about the plane, dubbed "The Beast of Kandahar" in 2007 when its existence was finally confirmed.
"The RQ-170 Sentinel, a low observable UAV, was built by Lockheed Martin's Advanced Development Programs," Major Cristin L. Marposon, a public affairs officer for the USAF at the Pentagon, finally told FoxNews.com in 2009.
Sources said that the plane was designed for surveillance, not for attack.
Little is known about the plane beyond its intended goals, however, with no official images released or details about its composition. Leaked photographs purportedly of the craft depict a sleek, biwing design, intended to present a stealthier, harder to hit profile that other drones or other aircraft.
"The USAF has not issued any public release photos of the RQ-170," Melissa Dalton of Lockheed Martin told FoxNews.com
Early reports suggested that plane -- which supposedly has a wingspan of about 65 feet and can fly at around 50,000 feet -- would be made almost entirely without metal to help it dodge radar, and special paint provides additional stealth.
Sen. Mark Kirk, R-Ill., told Fox News on Monday that "it's less likely than not" that the Iranians did not shoot down the plane, but it had a mechanical or computer malfunction that caused it to go down. The Iranians then used it "for propaganda purposes."
"In the past, they have claimed these shoot-downs and been unable to produce any pieces of the drone, and currently, they have not exhibited any piece of the RQ-170 yet," he said.
FoxNews
posted by madtom at 5:49 PM
16 Comments:
I wonder if there is a runway behind the Chinese embassy in Tehran capable of handling a Chinese chip-powered super secret US drone hijacked through hacking? If Iran doesn't release some photos of wild eyed goat herders holding up wreckage pretty some, I'm gonna start speculating it's in one piece.
They already said it was in one piece, the news is that they shot it down with little damage...I have not wanted to say too much but they may be using that Israeli trick of giving them a "dead" drone that is going to pop back to life and blow their lab to smithereens...SHHHhh you did not hear it here...
Then again, a bit much for his O'ness
I find rank incompetence to be the most logical and likely scenario. If what I just read elsewhere is correct, these things are designed to glide to a safe landing if contact is lost with the operators. So, the most highly advanced model of our most advanced tech is being flown either inside or very near our biggest enemy and the thing doesn't self destruct before being captured? Technology gets better as our intelligence degrades. That is just unbelievable stupidity and carelessness.
I read in the Wiki page that they were not in fact the latest tech, in fact made with old tech for just that scenario
"The design lacks several elements common to stealth engineering, namely notched landing gear doors and sharp leading edges. It has a curved wing planform, and the exhaust is not shielded by the wing.[10] Aviation Week postulates that these elements suggest the designers have avoided 'highly sensitive technologies' due to the near certainty of eventual operational loss inherent with a single engine design and a desire to avoid the risk of compromising leading edge technology."
Wiki
I hope that much is true, but I still fail to understand why they would be designed to survive after control is lost. I did read some quotes of a 'source' who said this was the biggest tech loss since China took down a B2 in Kosovo. When in enemy territory they should be booby trapped, or designed to nose dive into the ground at the speed of sound, at least. It's war and all is fair, etc. It really is starting to look like we and our ally are trying to provoke Iran into doing something stupid to justify blowing the hell out of parts of that country. Or, we'll gradually tear up their program little pieces and people at a time. I want to think we still have competent people somewhere in the government....
Well, I mean, maybe loosing contact is routine, they are autonomous after all, if every time they lost contact the thing self-destructed it might make them useless..
"I want to think we still have competent people somewhere in the government...."
Good luck with that!
"I did read some quotes of a 'source' who said"
You know you could share your sources once in a while, not just brag about them...How about the rest of us.
I'm sticking with my Chinese conspiracy theory. I spoke with a soldier that spent a day with a drone operator while going into Pakistan to retrieve a crashed drone and he was told that a drone will return to it's pre-programmed base if contact is lost with it's operator. If it's internal guidance is lost, so will it's internal flight controls. It will crash, not land intact, which is a fail-safe in case of instances like this. He agreed with me that if this thing landed inside Iran, from what he was told and common sense tells me, some how control was hijacked or the internal guidance was hacked. You've put plenty of stories on here about Chines hacking of Pentagon computers and chines manufactured computer chips. It isn't a wild theory... I have to admit I haven't heard anyone else throw it out there, but I don't let that stop me.
OK, I just typed in 'china drone hijacked iran' and got hundreds of hits, so I take back my self congratulation for original thinking.
Oh no, your story has changed somewhat, you said the drone might have Chinese chips in it! I trust Lockheed Martin, I trust that they would only use the finest chips in the equipment they seen our troops.
Hacking, that is a different story, anything can be hacked and that could have happened, but if your going to post some crazy story about Chinese chips in LM equipment, you'll need to bring more than just your word to the post..
And there is still, with a malfunction, the thing could have thought it was landing at the safe landing strip, and just picked the wrong strip???
Of course hacking is still a good possibility, O wants to rely on drones and the enemies want to take away is favorite weapon, no doubt
http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/08_41/b4103034193886.htm
Keep up. Why you think LM is beyond using Chinese manufactured chips is puzzling. LM doesn't make chips, they buy them from vendors who likely buy chips from some source that buys them from some source that buys them from.....and there have been many stories over the last year about fake chips being found inside weapon systems and inside manufacturers of defense systems. I remember reading one story about an investigation where a defense chip manufacturer found that thousands of their chips had been stolen and replaced with fakes. And don't forget that LM is the contractor that built such secure systems that drones could be hacked by any goat herder with a laptop and a program available at the bazaar for $19.99 so that the Taliban was watching what the drones where broadcasting in real time. I think the problem is much worse than we are being told. We don't make chips anymore and they are too easy to sabotage in too many ways to detect. No matter where they are made, Chinese chips are involved in the process somewhere, or they are manufactured in places too easy to infiltrate. As ridiculous as it is, we rely on systems reliant upon basic components that we do not make, but instead buy from one of our most likely enemies in time of war. .
Well in that story you posted it said the fakes make on board as spare parts the Army installs, not on the production lines. So I think my "faith" in LM is still intact.
But a good link none the less I'll post it to keep others in the loop.
By the way, the whole attack the spare parts chain plan is pure castro, got his fingerprints all over it...I would not be surprised to find out he's the mastermind behind the whole thing, or at least was when he still had a mind to speak of.
The spare parts thing came about in the Clinton Admin when they made the Pentagon use 'over the counter' materials in weapon systems to reduce costs. American manufacturers couldn't compete with Red Army owned Chinese factories so that now their basic components come stamped Made in China procured through the lowest bidder who has no idea where the chips come from or whether they are new or used. You also might remember that just two months ago there was a story about a key logger virus that kept popping up in drone related computers and routers and the last I heard, they still hadn't figured out how it got there or why it kept popping up even after they wiped the software clean and rebooted the systems. If a chip is designed to do what a virus would do, it won't go away unless the chip is removed. Our vulnerability is self inflicted. Stock up on rocks and slingshots, they may be only things that work someday.
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