Iran has missing US Stealth Drone

[gevorg]

3. How did Iran detect the drone in flight? Its supposed to be stealthed from radar. Or was it just a lucky visual sighting by a ground based observer or a random plane. Or did Iran only detect the drone after it crash landed in Iran?

Stealth does not mean that something cannot be detected by radar at all, it means that it will be hard for radar to detect it (i.e. hard to lock on, reduced detection range, etc). For example, an un-stealthy drone can be detected at 100km range, but a stealthy one can only be detected at 10km range, or whatever. With a mobile radar system, Iran might got lucky. There are also radars with some anti-stealth capabilities with sophisticated techniques to improve stealth detection range, but I doubt Iran has any of that tech.

 

[woodie1]

Strange. If Iran has the drone why have they not posted pics? Or, has anyone seen any pics posted on the the web?

They haven't finished photoshopping them yet.

Thanks, that makes sense. Well, maybe they can get help from Russia or China.

 

[Zebo]

Yeah stealth means it looks like a bird under best conditions instead of a jumbo jet on radar. You can still manually target, still physically id it, still looks like a airplane under wrong conditions.

 

[cybrsage]

Now that its probable that Iran has the RQ-170 drone in relatively undamaged condition, some questions remain.

Where did you get this idea from?

 

[cybrsage]

They're too dumb to know what to do with it anyway. People here throw around the phrase "reverse engineer" as if some Iranian in a lab coat is going to walk up to the plane, hold down 'E" and a little progress bar will come up and advance, saying "Reverse Engineering..."

Wait...are you saying that is not how it is done?

 

[lothar]

...and this, ladies and gentlemen, is why we use drones instead of piloted aircraft for this kind of mission. Can you imagine the stink if a manned spy plane got shot down? I can.

If an SR-71 Blackbird was used, how likely is it to be shot down?

 

[davmat787]

If an SR-71 Blackbird was used, how likely is it to be shot down?

SR-71's are not used by the military anymore, have not been for awhile actually. IIRC, NASA flies one or two for atmospheric testing and the like, but that is it. Unmanned aircraft and satellites have replaced them.

 

[lothar]

SR-71's are not used by the military anymore, have not been for awhile actually. IIRC, NASA flies one or two for atmospheric testing and the like, but that is it. Unmanned aircraft and satellites have replaced them.

I know that...My comment was more of a "what if" question.
We need an SR-71 Blackbird replacement that isn't a *itch to maintain.

 

[IGBT]

so is your obama going to go over there and apologize??

 

[davmat787]

I know that...My comment was more of a "what if" question.
We need an SR-71 Blackbird replacement that isn't a *itch to maintain.

Would not surprise me if there is one either flying, or in the works, but we just don't know about it yet. But I still think the future is with unmanned vs. a manned SR-71 type replacement.

As for your original question, I am not familiar enough with Irans air defense capability to know how likely an SR-71 could be shot down.

 

[irishScott]

Would not surprise me if there is one either flying, or in the works, but we just don't know about it yet. But I still think the future is with unmanned vs. a manned SR-71 type replacement.

As for your original question, I am not familiar enough with Irans air defense capability to know how likely an SR-71 could be shot down.

A good chunk of the future certainly is, but drones only work as long as the enemy lacks appropriate jamming tech. There will always be a place for manned planes IMO.

 

[umbrella39]

so is your obama going to go over there and apologize??

So are you the first troll to troll the obama troll?

 

[Craig234]

And their national airline, Iran Air, is falling apart because of the embargo against Boeing selling any parts or support.

Message to the rest of the world:

Don't buy Boeing, you are subject to having parts cut off.

 

[EagleKeeper]

Message to the rest of the world:

Don't buy Boeing, you are subject to having parts cut off.

And this has happened how many other times to the rest of the world?

 

[irishScott]

Message to the rest of the world:

Don't buy Boeing, you are subject to having parts cut off.

If you support terrorism, brutally and violently suppress your own people, attempt to clandestinely undermine our war efforts in other nations, manufacture and proliferate nuclear weapons, we will... *drum roll* cut off your replacement airline parts.

You're right Craig, that's a pretty pussifed message. We should just reduce a few of their cities to rubble instead. /sarcasm

 

[sportage]

if these things are going to crash, some self destruct system should be built in.
Or some other failsafe system.
Naturally, at some point, these things will get into enemy hands.
So protect yourself.... Is that really that hard to understand?

 

[EagleKeeper]

if these things are going to crash, some self destruct system should be built in.
Or some other failsafe system.
Naturally, at some point, these things will get into enemy hands.
So protect yourself.... Is that really that hard to understand?

At present, we have only a statement from Iran. No evidence has been produced that they have one of ours and the condition of it.

Pakistan at least was able to provide photos of our helo that was lost.

 

[Nebor]

Message to the rest of the world:

Don't buy Boeing, you are subject to having parts cut off.

Message to the rest of the world:

Don't attack other countries with nuclear weapons, you are subject to having parts cut off.

 

[K1052]

Message to the rest of the world:

Don't buy Boeing, you are subject to having parts cut off.

Airbus is restricted from doing business with Iran also.

 

[lothar]

Message to the rest of the world:

Don't buy Boeing, you are subject to having parts cut off.

Who else are you going to buy?
The EU can do the same with Airbus, and they in fact already do.

Are you recommending people buy/fly Chinese or Russian made Aircraft?
Good luck with safety in that regard.

 

[airdata]

How much was that bad boy worth?

Was it armed, or not? Also, having seen stories recently talking about drones being susceptible to being hacked, what are the chances they hacked it and/or took control of it?

 

[EagleKeeper]

How much was that bad boy worth?

Was it armed, or not? Also, having seen stories recently talking about drones being susceptible to being hacked, what are the chances they hacked it and/or took control of it?

Had they had it in control; they would have been able to bring it down safely and immediately paraded the unit to the world as evidence of Iran technological superiority over the great Satan.

They found pieces of it and that is all. not enough to generate a decent photoshop of the trophy.

 

[OutHouse]

Had they had it in control; they would have been able to bring it down safely and immediately paraded the unit to the world as evidence of Iran technological superiority over the great Satan.

They found pieces of it and that is all. not enough to generate a decent photoshop of the trophy.

i dont know dude. the pentagon is not denying that iran has it and from the interviews i have heard while listing to XM radio on my commute the drone is designed to live. if it loses its tether it will fly straight and level and land.

 

[ericlp]

It is remote controlled but can't go out of range since it's controlled from satellites. Most likely the receiver on board died and the drone kept flying till it ran out of gas.

 

[Lemon law]

I know that...My comment was more of a "what if" question.
We need an SR-71 Blackbird replacement that isn't a *itch to maintain.

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I am somewhat surprised that no one brought up the the other SR-71 limitations.

On the up side the SR-71 flies far higher and longer than the U2 it replaced, so our human pilots are unlikely to fall into enemy hands.

But the huge downside of the SR-71 spy plane is in exactly that trade off between Altitude
and safety. As the quality of the aerial surveillance these planes gather is inversely proportional with altitude. And if cloud cover gets in the way, we get nothing. What the SR-71 can deliver is little better than the satellite tech we already have.

Aerial intel is best gathered at under 10,000 feet, and even then its only a small part of the bigger picture. Making a pilot less drone almost ideal for the job. But still to get the other half of the picture, it usually takes human intel on the ground.