1. #1
    ROXunreal's Avatar Senior Member
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    Ladies and gentlemen, I give you the secret RQ-170 Sentinel

    http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-16098562

    video
    http://www.haaretz.com/news/mi...lance-drone-1.400377

    Looks relatively intact. Iran say they "hacked" the drone and landed it, which I find highly dubious if not funny, but it's possible that it lost control and belly landed, or went into a flat spin and crashed with a much weaker impact.

    This aircraft has stealth elements but does not feature the most sensitive high end US stealth technology, so Iran won't have much to "steal" in that regard.
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  2. #2
    Yeh, just got done reading that.

    I would of thought we would of had some sort of automatic destruction, built into the software, if one of them lost contact with home after a certain amount of time. Even if it lost control like a flat spins, simple set mercury switches could of been utilized to set off a destruction sequence.
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  3. #3
    Originally posted by ROXunreal:
    Ladies and gentlemen, I give you the secret RQ-170 Sentinel

    http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-16098562

    video
    http://www.haaretz.com/news/mi...lance-drone-1.400377

    Looks relatively intact. Iran say they "hacked" the drone and landed it, which I find highly dubious if not funny, but it's possible that it lost control and belly landed, or went into a flat spin and crashed with a much weaker impact.

    This aircraft has stealth elements but does not feature the most sensitive high end US stealth technology, so Iran won't have much to "steal" in that regard.
    Bad luck! not sure if Iran will have much to steal (though we really never know, they said they detected it, hacked it and the drone doesn't seem that damaged after all ), but i'm sure China and Russia will...

    What is more, is that it is not really steal(th)ing, since it seems the drone was violating Iran airspace?
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  4. #4
    Originally posted by T_O_A_D:
    Yeh, just got done reading that.

    I would of thought we would of had some sort of automatic destruction, built into the software, if one of them lost contact with home after a certain amount of time. Even if it lost control like a flat spins, simple set mercury switches could of been utilized to set off a destruction sequence.
    I hear you, but still it is better to have a drone captured, and the whole world seeing that you're spying by illegally flying over a sovereign country, than to have a pilot down there....
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  5. #5
    That is a really nifty looking piece of equipment. I wonder how many more of those we have?
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  6. #6
    horseback's Avatar Senior Member
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    Blah-blah-blah.

    The original story was that they 'shot it down'. Now they say that they hacked it, took over its controls and landed it intact, or nearly so.

    If the first story is true, the almost undamaged exhibit is most likely a fake; if the second version of events is true, then they could be hacking drones flying along the Afghan or even Iraqi borders and landing them in Iran just as easily as the US could be using them to overfly Iran.

    In practical terms, between satellites and the near border looking across with the drones seems to me to make overflights superfluous, unless the current administration is getting their jollies by making the mullahocracy there wonder if the next drone might be packing Hellfires...

    After all, they've claimed to be at war with 'the Great Satan' for the last 30+ years--what if he/it/(us) decided to take that declaration seriously?

    cheers

    horseback
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  7. #7
    ROXunreal's Avatar Senior Member
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    Originally posted by RegRag1977:
    Bad luck! not sure if Iran will have much to steal (though we really never know, they said they detected it, hacked it and the drone doesn't seem that damaged after all ), but i'm sure China and Russia will...

    What is more, is that it is not really steal(th)ing, since it seems the drone was violating Iran airspace?
    I think it would be theoretically possible that the drone lost contact with its remote pilots due to an internal error, and if it was trimmed out properly it could keep on flying until out of fuel and belly land in the desert of eastern Iran with minimal damage. This could also mean that it was not spying on Iran but was doing recon in Afghanistan when it lost contact and kept on flying over the border. Of course, not that I wouldn't expect the US spying on Iran though...

    Or if it went into a spin, it's a small and light but probably well built military aircraft, and if it fell on sand or gravel at a slower spin speed I don't think it would be much busted up. I really don't believe they "hacked" it lol. The US said they lost a drone a week before Iran even mentioned it, which would make sense if they found the drone where it crashed/landed days later.

    As for stealing, I couldn't care less really. Actually the US losing some of its technological military supremacy to other powers is only good news in my book
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  8. #8
    WTE_Galway's Avatar Senior Member
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    Originally posted by T_O_A_D:
    Yeh, just got done reading that.

    I would of thought we would of had some sort of automatic destruction, built into the software, if one of them lost contact with home after a certain amount of time. Even if it lost control like a flat spins, simple set mercury switches could of been utilized to set off a destruction sequence.
    oooh ... you wouldn't catch me doing the maintenance on one if that was implemented
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  9. #9
    ROXunreal's Avatar Senior Member
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    Originally posted by WTE_Galway:
    <BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by T_O_A_D:
    Yeh, just got done reading that.

    I would of thought we would of had some sort of automatic destruction, built into the software, if one of them lost contact with home after a certain amount of time. Even if it lost control like a flat spins, simple set mercury switches could of been utilized to set off a destruction sequence.
    oooh ... you wouldn't catch me doing the maintenance on one if that was implemented </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

    You can imagine how much it would stir feces up if it crashed and then self destructed when the Iranians tampered with it
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  10. #10
    Originally posted by ROXunreal:
    I think it would be theoretically possible that the drone lost contact with its remote pilots due to an internal error, and if it was trimmed out properly it could keep on flying until out of fuel and belly land in the desert of eastern Iran with minimal damage.
    Very possible.
    It reminds me of this incident:
    http://www.airforce-magazine.c...202009/0409gary.aspx
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