Iran has RQ-170 Sentinel

That is why being engineer today is not what used to be in the past. A politician or a general may dream anything, but then is the engineer or the scientist who has to do it.
In a democracy, the only thing you lose by saying "this is not possible" is your job. And then you have to search for another... In a dictatorship, as you know very well, saying "this is not possible" can be very dangerous...

In regard with another matter, maybe the Chinese are the ones with the piles of money, but even they ask for help to the Russians when there is something at cutting edge of science. The Chinese astronaut went in space with Russian/Soviet technology.

This post has been edited by Florin on December 12, 2011 07:50 pm

It seems that my early predictions were correct. Here is what the US sources revealled and I still believe that the Russians had their hands in it too.

Iran guided the CIA's "lost" stealth drone to an intact landing inside hostile territory by exploiting a navigational weakness long-known to the US military, according to an Iranian engineer now working on the captured drone's systems inside Iran.

Iranian electronic warfare specialists were able to cut off communications links of the American bat-wing RQ-170 Sentinel, says the engineer, who works for one of many Iranian military and civilian teams currently trying to unravel the drone’s stealth and intelligence secrets, and who could not be named for his safety.

Using knowledge gleaned from previous downed American drones and a technique proudly claimed by Iranian commanders in September, the Iranian specialists then reconfigured the drone's GPS coordinates to make it land in Iran at what the drone thought was its actual home base in Afghanistan.

The GPS navigation is the weakest point," the Iranian engineer told the Monitor, giving the most detailed description yet published of Iran's "electronic ambush" of the highly classified US drone. "By putting noise [jamming] on the communications, you force the bird into autopilot. This is where the bird loses its brain."

The “spoofing” technique that the Iranians used – which took into account precise landing altitudes, as well as latitudinal and longitudinal data – made the drone “land on its own where we wanted it to, without having to crack the remote-control signals and communications” from the US control center, says the engineer.

The revelations about Iran's apparent electronic prowess come as the US, Israel, and some European nations appear to be engaged in an ever-widening covert war with Iran, which has seen assassinations of Iranian nuclear scientists, explosions at Iran's missile and industrial facilities, and the Stuxnet computer virus that set back Iran’s nuclear program.

Now this engineer’s account of how Iran took over one of America’s most sophisticated drones suggests Tehran has found a way to hit back. The techniques were developed from reverse-engineering several less sophisticated American drones captured or shot down in recent years, the engineer says, and by taking advantage of weak, easily manipulated GPS signals, which calculate location and speed from multiple satellites.

This post has been edited by yugit on December 17, 2011 12:44 am

Yugit,
Anyone can be a "source" and anyone can fantasize about what happened.
Where did you get any of the above? Can you give us your "source"?

I would not trust a single thing coming from Iran. They have every single interest to look superior and rub America's nose into it. America will never explain the technical details and operation of their military hardware in use. This is pure high grade fuel for supercharged febrile minds!

In my opinion there is very little groundbreaking technology in that machine.
The aerodynamics and shape goes back to WW2 - Google "Horten IX / Gotha 229", or "Nurflugel" or "German Batwing". I saw the wings of the Ho IX in Udvar Hazy facilty of the NASM in June - only the wings are in Washington, the body of the Ho IX V3 is still in storage in Maryland. So America did not "invent the wheel" on this one. In the video I spotted something "familiar": one of the two Iranians is pulling up and then pushing down a "spoiler" from the upper surface of the left wing. That spoiler is present also on the wing of the Ho IX. It is a "steering" air brake.
The RAM coating is not something that US has a monopoly on... The Russians and the Chinese have their own versions.
The engines and controls are probably off-the-shelf equipment (why reinvent the wheel?) and I am willing to bet that many of the electronic components have "made in China" on them.
The sensors, such as cameras, infrared, radar, etc, may be the same as the gear used for more than a decade on Raptors, Reapers or Global Hawks (some of which were lost before). Why "reinvent the wheel"?
So, if you think about it, the only thing that may be unusual to the unwary is really the shape... Which as explained above, is news only for those without an interest in aviation.
All of the above can be replicated. BUT, the things that will be harder to replicate are the composite materials used in construction. For example, anyone knows what Kevlar is, you can get it anywhere, you can see it in so many products. But the chemical formula and the manufacturing process are still secret and impossible to replicate - often copied, never equalled. And without lightweight composite materials, this will never be copied.
Radu

This post has been edited by Radub on December 17, 2011 10:03 am

This report is from Yahoo news yesterday.....

I am the last one on the earth to believe what
the Iranians are saying,though by working for
the last 26 years in the Aerospace industry,
I have followed the progress of the Iranian Aerospace Ind.
As an example they achieved a specific progress allowing
them to keep their F-4's and F-14's operational without
spares support from US. Additionally some of their
manufactured missiles seems to have passed the tests etc.

I don't doubt that they targetted the drone and made it land....
with or without 3rd partys help.....It will be a huge mistake
for US, UK, Israel and Europeans to underestimate their
technological progress. Noboday believed Sadam will
hit as far as Tel Aviv with the Scuds.....but he proved
the opposite

This post has been edited by yugit on December 17, 2011 10:57 am

Yeah, but who is the author, what is the source?
Yahoo News is a "news harvester" not a "news provider".

All I know about Iran is what I read in the news or on the internet and I do not trust any of it. Iranian authorities are pathological boastful liars. Others who seek a row with them embellish facts to make a case for war. The blind leading the blind. (or maybe "the blind leading the blonde" )

Radu

Here you go....


http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/technology-blo...-030447469.html

No author and no proper quotes makes this "source" unreliable. There is nothing in the text to indicate that it was written by a "US Source".
Radu

I am sure you can use your own sources, beyond doubts they
brought down the drone either through a SIGINT landing or
capture in the air by means of aircrafts. I don't pay attention
to what the Iranians are saying but to what can be really
achieved by them given thier current technological status.

No one knows for sure what happened, we only know what we are told.
The Iranians tell us that that they "brought down" the plane.
The US tell us that the plane "malfunctioned".
So, if you believe that the plane "was brought down", then you are paying attention to the Iranians.
Radu

You keep twisting the things....the drone malfunctioned fact
admitted by the D.O.D, thus enabled the Iranians to jamm
it and bring it down, this what I said and this is my firm
opinion,therefore once again you rush to conclussions in similar
to previous remarks of yours at an another topic regarding
some of my books,period.

This post has been edited by yugit on December 17, 2011 12:05 pm

Yugit,
I am not twisting anything. I only know what you tell me. Anyone can read what you said.

What conclusions did I jump to? Thre are two opposing versions of events. US said "malfunction", Iran said "controls takeover". You never mentioned "malfunction". You stated that the Iranian technology did all the work by using an "existing weakness" - this describes an on-going "problem" rather than a sudden "accident" as indicated by the US "malfunction" statement.
Here are your statements:
- "according to an Iranian engineer..."
- "Iranian electronic warfare specialists were able to cut off communications links..."
- and "the Iranian specialists then reconfigured the GPS coordinates"
No "twists", these are your statements. And all of these statements from Iran, not US. I do not believe Iran!

What books are you talking about? You stated that you had a certain book that I also have, then I told you to go to a certain page and you confessed you did not actually have that book at all. Where is my "twist" in all this?

Radu

whatever you say.

Iranian technology? Iranian engineers? What are they called? Ivan Ivanovici or Chu-sun Tze? I wonder why the above-mentioned enemies of the USA keep letting the Iranians boast with this thing... perhaps an unofficial leak is to follow...

Here is an other blow of the US Intel community and the German
BND...that is going to have serious implications in the next days
to come and is gonna hurt some employees of the US Government.

I believe that since Panetta was appointed as CIA chief a
guy with any experience by Intel, this community records
are worth a second grade classes. Maybe they need to
get some training from FSB ,BND, DGS ,MI-6 and MOSAD

http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-202_162-573461...hip-in-finland/

This post has been edited by yugit on December 21, 2011 09:57 pm

No comment:

http://news.yahoo.com/iran-mocks-us-toy-dr...--abc-news.html