Iran claimed Sunday that it had recovered data from an American spy drone that went down in Iran last year and said it was building a copy of the drone.

I have always wondered why the U.S. didn't have an embedded explosive devise that could be detonated in a case like this/ (especially waiting until the enemy is crawling all over it)

I saw another article that announced the copy has been built and is awaiting testing.

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MR/F Guestmap: [www.mapservices.org]

I said the same thing to my wife when this all started.

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Grateful11

maybe it's a Trojan that was intended to infiltrate their systems & take 'em down from inside...?

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[www.giyf.com]

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decay
maybe it's a Trojan that was intended to infiltrate their systems & take 'em down from inside...?

Has anyone seen Jeff Goldblum recently?

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MR/F Guestmap: [www.mapservices.org]

If it was a Trojan, it would probably been a balloon, not a plane.

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Be yourself; everyone else is already taken. — Oscar Wilde

Why a cruise missile didn't follow that drone in indicates a leadership failure to me. You're either going to violate another countries airspace, or you're not...have the balls to make up your mind which one andif a classified drone goes down, Blow the damn thing up and don't sit there wringing your hands over it.

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Paul F.
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A sword never kills anybody; it is a tool in the killer's hand. - Lucius Annaeus Seneca c. 5 BC - 65 AD
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Good is the enemy of Excellent. Talent is not necessary for Excellence.
Persistence is necessary for Excellence. And Persistence is a Decision.
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Eureka, CA

Do you think the US should have bombed the P-3 Orion that landed in China too? I wonder how that would have turned out?

Heheh.
You said "Trojan."

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Live from Berserkeley, California | Originally from the City of Brotherly Freakin' Love

"maybe it's a Trojan"

Nope. A Sheik.

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Paul F.
Why a cruise missile didn't follow that drone in indicates a leadership failure to me. You're either going to violate another countries airspace, or you're not...have the balls to make up your mind which one andif a classified drone goes down, Blow the damn thing up and don't sit there wringing your hands over it.

To me it indicates they didn't know where the drone was.

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[www.flickr.com] [picasaweb.google.com]

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Paul F.
Why a cruise missile didn't follow that drone in indicates a leadership failure to me. You're either going to violate another countries airspace, or you're not...have the balls to make up your mind which one andif a classified drone goes down, Blow the damn thing up and don't sit there wringing your hands over it.

I'll bet you'll find PETA is behind this if you dig deep enough.

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MR/F Guestmap: [www.mapservices.org]

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Uncle Wig

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Paul F.
Why a cruise missile didn't follow that drone in indicates a leadership failure to me. You're either going to violate another countries airspace, or you're not...have the balls to make up your mind which one andif a classified drone goes down, Blow the damn thing up and don't sit there wringing your hands over it.

To me it indicates they didn't know where the drone was.

Please be seated, people. I’m going to agree with what was said above by Dr. Wig.

In addition to using our own unencrypted GPS signals, spoofed to manually guide it down, it also makes perfect sense to note that whatever freq it transmits on were simply over-powered, so it couldn’t communicate back.

Why it didn’t have a significant self-destruct capability (of either its own electronics or the entire unit) is what I find terribly disappointing. Weight is obviously a factor as to why it isn’t lined with materials to turn it into sawdust as was the shuttle, so the materials and structure were probably not as big a find, having already lost an F-117a to China/Russia and the reward hungry farmers/peasants of Bosnia twenty years ago.

But for communication?? Just ONE final sequence, just before coming home, to confirm via some digital key, that it was, in fact, in the hands of its true controller? NOT part of the protocol? That baffles my mind. It’s design arrogance of the worst sort.

And... plopping the weapon of choice on top of it, in the interior of Iran… well, then I guess you’d understand completely, the next time we take out a civilian airliner or speedy PT boat, if the fleet has to deal with 20 Exocets in retaliation - and would be phoning home to the families of the sailors, that their lives weren’t lost for nothing… because, after all, poor DESIGN CONTINGENCY, not leadership, had to be paid for with a Tomahawk by a “reactionary leader whose answer to U.S. military failures over sovereign nations, is to bomb them for our own errors?? – but hey… our Drone is now safely destroyed from 2011/2012, because these brave (and dead) Class of 2014 sailors, who didn’t have clue #1 as to why they were being swarmed by sea skimmers, over a 4 man speedboat…?? …..???

Yep… the best leadership is the one that pushes buttons right away for the faults of our own military planners.

That said… if I were into advanced radio controlled planes (of the large, 1/5th scale type), I’d be researching this issue right now to take control of these home made JETS, and fly them to my own airspace, every time there was a get-together of this sort. [www.youtube.com]

Of course, I’ll bet they use at least 9 pin dip switches for digital security for their radio signal, from Sears Garage Door Openers!! Maybe even a cell phone!

xkcd: 44 bits of entropy…

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There seems to be a vacuum in the learning curve of many that the days when we could afford to react with impunity to our own mistakes - without cause for retaliation, those days, for many nations, no longer exist. Afghanistan is one thing. The ability of at least “eye for an eye” - from a nation WE TRAINED until 1979, is another.

Has not the work of INDIVIDUALS sunk in yet, much less the capability of such primitives as 1967 Israel, that killed 34 & wounded 170 on the USS Liberty? Or the USS Stark / Exocet pair, with 37 killed & 21 wounded? Or the simple act of lone wolves that required an Aegis class guided missile destroyer be stuffed on top of a barge and dragged home for repair… just 4 years old, with 17 dead and 39 wounded, after being humiliated by a handful of suicide bombers and granted a 40 foot HOLE in the side of the ship??

Leadership MINIMIZES LOSSES thru calculated risk. It doesn’t create greater risk after losses it should have been prepared for in the first place.

Perhaps this reminder will help burn it into your collective memories. The “enemy” isn’t always ‘known’ nor is it always a nation-state, nor does that any longer, limit its ability to cause substantial loss of life, injury and damage to both “the greatest power ever to rule this planet” - as well as “the greatest ruling power on the planet most exposed by its own weaknesses while projecting strength.”

Come to the fight not wearing a cup… with your sack hanging in view, expect someone whose hate you’ve earned (or has since been inculcated) to try to kick you in the nuts.

The fact that you’re wearing a helmet, vest, night vision and steel toed boots still means an M-80 can relieve you of your sack and all nearby. Especially if you just shot the poppy grower’s great uncle & child, because they were at a school that didn’t normally include hyper-sonic ball bearings coming thru the walls.





Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 04/23/2012 07:48AM by Jimmypoo.

The specific technical reason is unknown, but I will make the assumption that the drone signal jammed and spoofed, and the drone was not designed to self-destruct when the guidance signal was lost.. probably a 'safety' feature. I also know that one can embed thermite charges into classified electronics and whatnot that will self-destruct rather less energetically, but that probably wasn't done either.

All told, it was a design screwup of EPIC proportions.

Or a 'false flag' deliberate attempt to 'give' the Iranians 'Technology' that was destined to fail. (We used to do that to the Rooskies all the time.)

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cbelt3
Or a 'false flag' deliberate attempt to 'give' the Iranians 'Technology' that was destined to fail. (We used to do that to the Rooskies all the time.)

I doubt that the Commander in Chief would have OK'd a mission destined to leave this much egg on his face.

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rj
AKA
Vreemac, Moth of the Future

Why would you need to blow it up ?

Just ask pretty please to get it back.

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Jimmypoo
All told, it was a design screwup of EPIC proportions.

Except for below… what’s above that I didn’t say?

Since when does that have anything to do with anything?

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rj
AKA
Vreemac, Moth of the Future

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rjmacs
I doubt that the Commander in Chief would have OK'd a mission destined to leave this much egg on his face.

I never understand this kind of thinking. How does a President end up with egg on his face because equipment fails? I mean, I don't understand it whenever it happens, through all the years. It never made sense to me, since the last time I checked the Presidents don't design the equipment. Shouldn't this be egg on the face of the designers/suppliers? Who will no doubt continue to have lucrative contracts despite any and all screw ups.

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"You can believe me because I never lie and I'm always right."



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/23/2012 02:26PM by $tevie.

Jimmy... I merely put your wisdom into my own words. I shoulda put the Poo trademark on my comments.




Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/23/2012 03:13PM by cbelt3.

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$tevie

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rjmacs
I doubt that the Commander in Chief would have OK'd a mission destined to leave this much egg on his face.

I never understand this kind of thinking. How does a President end up with egg on his face because equipment fails? I mean, I don't understand it whenever it happens, through all the years. It never made sense to me, since the last time I checked the Presidents don't design the equipment. Shouldn't this be egg on the face of the designers/suppliers? Who will no doubt continue to have lucrative contracts despite any and all screw ups.

How? Because a national security failure always lands on the doorstep of the Commander in Chief. You're quite right that President Obama had nothing to do - technically or operationally - with this failure. But the system that failed was under his command, on his watch, during a mission that he presumably approved. If the system isn't reliable enough to work properly, he's the guy who should know and should nix the operation. Plus, it's a bit humiliating to announce that you have requested the return of your spy plane from the people on whom you were spying.

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rj
AKA
Vreemac, Moth of the Future

If he wants credit for Bin Laden, he's got to suck it up about screw-ups.