Iran downs US RQ-170

[Wildpicture]

According to several news sources Iran has downed an American RQ-170 AUV today.
http://www.nrc.nl/nieuws/2011/12/04/ira ... rone-neer/

Al Jazeera is even mentioning that the UAV was not shot down but that the Iranians have taken over control of the drone and tried to land it. If that would be true, it is quite worrying.

[SquAdmin]

If that would be true, it is quite worrying.

But not surprising, a few weeks ago an Israeli UAV is also said to be hijacked.

[aviodromefriend]

That's one of the disadvantages of the advantage of not having to use (and as such not having to risk) manned aircraft. Oh no, not again that creature from Barcelona

[Rockville]

According to the media, the US lost control of one of their UAV's flying over W. Afghanistan last week.

[jp 74]

Yeah sure, thats something i would say when i was cought.

[FISHER01]

I am still waiting, when a UAV flies over my house wile playing my RC Helo. I might take over the control to

[Preben]

...this mean they stole encrypted codes, I guess it is not easy to do it.

[foxbat]

Iranian television showed some footage of the "downed" RQ-170 see
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-16098562
I hope it's a mock up !

Otherwise a big loss of technology etc.

Regards, Foxbat

[Iwan Bogels]

If the hijacked an Israeli drone as well as a US drone, this may be good for our hobby. Apparently unmanned aircraft might prove to be a risky thing, and manned jets wil stay in use longer and in larger numbers.

Just hoping.....

Cheers,
Iwan

[Piet Luijken]

I would be amazed if it really is a RQ-170.
It more looks like a poorly made model.
Why is it painted yellow iso grey, which all RQ-170s are painted?
Is it not way too small regarding previous photo's?
The sailplane like airbrakes are really not on the aircraft, totally unstealthy.
Just my thoughts...

But still the US do confirm an UAV has been lost, so...

Last night I passed an Global hawk flying at FL510 along the Iranian border! I was at FL400 which I thought was high.

[SquAdmin]

Just hoping.....

Understand what you mean, I prefer a manned recce aircraft over any remote controlled toy. On the other hand, if this would have been a manned aircraft it would probably have been shot down and the pilot either dead or captured...

[aviodromefriend]

On the other hand, if this would have been a manned aircraft it would probably have been shot down and the pilot either dead or captured...

Question is: would the whole incident have happened at all with a manned aircraft?

[ehusmann]

I would be amazed if it really is a RQ-170.
It more looks like a poorly made model.
Why is it painted yellow iso grey, which all RQ-170s are painted?
Is it not way too small regarding previous photo's?
The sailplane like airbrakes are really not on the aircraft, totally unstealthy.
Just my thoughts...

Well, take a look at this video. At around 1.10 they show a picture of such a drone on a runway. The aircraft in the back seems to be an A-10 (if you ask me), which means the picture must be taken on a US controlled airbase. This drone looks remarkably like the thing the Iranians showed.

But still the US do confirm an UAV has been lost, so...

I doubt they will.

Erwin

[Thermal]

I doubt they will.

Well they already did. They only did not day that the drone is in Iranian hands.
Experts are not certain if the plane in the video is real or a mock up.

http://edition.cnn.com/2011/12/08/world ... =allsearch

The Iranian mock up has down sloping wings. The real thing has up sloping wings. Also the air intake does not look the same.

Iranian picture


-EDIT- Earlier published picture

[Wildpicture]

But still the US do confirm an UAV has been lost, so...

I doubt they will.

The US have already confirmed they did loose an AUV. They have not specified the type or the exact circumstances.

The aircraft shown by the Iranians does seem te be a RQ-170. Two things I noticed on the video are:
- the undercarriage is not shown. Destroyed in crash landing?
- There are two rather big seems across the wings on both sides of the centre. Almost as if the wings have broken off during a crash and have been "glued" on again.

My guess is that they noticed the UAV and started jamming all communications. That would just be a matter of picking up the communications frequencies and then massively jam these. That way they would not have taken over the UAV but prevented the US from controlling it, which would finally lead to a crash. The US then has to localize the crash site and has two options:
- send in a team of special forces to retrieve it. They once did send in special forces in Iran to free hostages and it ended in a disaster. Sending in a team might lead to a contact with Iranian forces, which sohould be prevented at this time. Those considerations might prevent them from doing it again. Also time would be extremely limited.
- Second option would be to bomb the crash site and remains of the UAV. Also time limited and dangerous.
And both options can be considered an act of war by the Iranians.

As I said before, if all the Iranians claim is true, it is quite worrying. Then they have technology to do something against UAV'. Their technology may be rather crude in just jamming the signals and communication, causing the UAV to finally crash. More worrying, by retrieving the UAV, they may now have gotten access to some technology we don't want them to have.