Iran captures U.S. drone in its airspace-media
Source: Reuters
(Reuters) - Iran captured a U.S. drone that was flying in the country's airspace, its media reported on Tuesday.
The ScanEagle drone was gathering information over Gulf waters and had entered Iranian airspace when it was captured by the naval unit of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC), the Fars news agency reported, without giving details.
The agency said the drone was captured sometime "in the last few days." It was not clear how it was captured.
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A U.S. Navy spokesman said they were aware of the reports, and were looking into them.
Read more: http://uk.reuters.com/article/2012/12/04/uk-iran-usa-drone-idUKBRE8B308620121204
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sabrina 1
(62,325 posts)assuming we have the right to ignore and respect the sovereignty of other nations. Now we look like the bad guys. All this has done is to make Iran look like the victim. They will have the sympathy of the world. I wish I knew who is really making these decisions.
msanthrope
(37,549 posts)Yeah--we should be worried that we look bad to the homophobic, anti-Semitic leaders of Iran?
They will have the sympathy of the world???
Other than North Korea and Syria, who do you think is going to care?
John2
(2,730 posts)you do. And I don't think a lot of people see it as you do. The World is also looking at how the U.S. deals with the Israeli and Palestinian issue. This goes two ways. I don't see the Iranians attacking the United States or trying to gather intelligence off U.S. shores. Our interests in Iran is our interest to protect Israel.
The U.S. also has a problem not with just Iran in that part of the World but also with Pakistan,Gaza, etc.etc.etc. The U.S. could not stop other countries from recognizing the Palestinians. How easy do you think, the U.S. can get a coalition together, should Israel nd the United States decides to attack Iran for Israel's safety? This is a country that also continues to defy the U.N. under U.S. protection and refuses to open its own nuclear facilities for inspection. A nuclear program allegedly gotten with stealing from the U.S. decades ago.
It is essentially the same logic, the U.S. is using against Iran. I think the United States needs to start acting fairly across the Board in Foreign Policy. These people existed long before the U.S. even started meddling in their affairs. I'm going to put Israel on the spot. Now where would a country, that started out as displaced Jews under the Palestinian Mandate, before the U.S. became involved, years later become a nuclear state? Not only that, the said country only has an entire population of eleven million people, (nearly half Arabs) able to get finances and the material to support such a program? If you ask me, everything points to the United States Government turning the blind eye and what I call our own right wing extremists with their Democratic allies in Congress. We called it espionage, but made no attempts to sanction Israel. If they do have such a program, Where are they getting this material in a country, that was formerly Palestine, under British control? Where are they getting the money to support their military? I'm waiting for your answers?
msanthrope
(37,549 posts)plethoro
(594 posts)the US to be flying drones over another sovereign nation? Yes, the US and Israel can and will have zillions of drones flying over their own countries to protect their people from pretend threats from other nations who have not been to real wars since the sixteen hundreds. But let these other countries travel on their own vector without the US and Israel stepping in to appropriate and kill what has kept these them going since in many cases the beginning of history. I now suspect the US will not be around in 2025 because the rich and powerful are making it a barren nation. But let the US stop playing mighty arbiter. Yes, we can protest how other countries treat their people while we are in the process of cheating our own out of freedoms and rights, social entitlements, life liberty and the pursuit of happiness, but leave the other countries alone. We can all see where that has gotten us. We are fighting so many unnecessary battles, we are near extinction ourselves.
Ash_F
(5,861 posts)within 12 hours. It wouldn't matter if they cross into US territory or not. That's American exceptionalism for you.
I remember when that manned spy-plane went down in China during Bush II and the admin immediately got all indignant about it like they had some kind of right, kind of like you are now. We were lucky we got the crew back.
octothorpe
(962 posts)And wasn't it that they just had to land in Chinese territory vs ditching at sea. If the military is flying drones into Iranian airspace, I find it highly unlikely they would make a similar stink about this as they did with that.
plethoro
(594 posts)the eight large banksters who are now running the world.......into the ground.
rachel1
(538 posts)a foreign power's military aircraft entered their airspaces with the intent of spying on or antagonizing them?
I can guarantee you that close-to-nobody in Pakistan, Afghanistan, Somalia, Yemen, etc. approves of killer drones entering their airspaces and recklessly slaughtering their people in the name of "freedom", "democracy", "security", or for any other jingoistic BS the imperialists can think of.
octothorpe
(962 posts)of them being capture or shotdown. They are well aware that's a risk they take when they do such things. I haven't seen anyone from the pentagon saying we should invade or attack Iran for shooting down our drones in their airspace.
sabrina 1
(62,325 posts)problems right here that need attention and all these invasions are detrimental to not just the American people but to the countries we can't seem to leave alone. And we sure haven't 'brought democracy' anywhere, in fact every where we've been seems to be far worse off than they were before.
HereSince1628
(36,063 posts)looks like a small surveillance aircraft...it's payload is probably less than 5 lbs.
Bosonic
(3,746 posts)...
But a US Navy spokesman said no US drones were missing in the Middle East despite Iran's claims.
"The US Navy has fully accounted for all unmanned air vehicles (UAV) operating in the Middle East region. Our operations in the Gulf are confined to internationally recognised water and air space," Commander Jason Salata, from the US Navy's 5th Fleet, said.
"We have no record that we have lost any ScanEagles recently."
He added that US ScanEagles have been lost into the sea in the past.
http://news.sky.com/story/1020329/us-navy-no-drones-missing-after-iran-claim
Kelvin Mace
(17,469 posts)Define "in the past".
Blandocyte
(1,231 posts)I hope that we'd planned on them getting this one and it was specially made for this purpose. When they open it it will be full of spring-loaded toy snakes and glitter that will fly out and get the party started.
hack89
(39,171 posts)there is nothing special about it.
dipsydoodle
(42,239 posts)Iranian state television has showed images of what it says is an unmanned US drone captured in its airspace.
The Revolutionary Guards said they had brought down a ScanEagle - one of the smaller, less sophisticated drones employed by the Americans.
Rear Admiral Ali Fadavi told the Fars news agency that the drone had conducted several reconnaissance flights over the Gulf in recent days.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-20591336
John2
(2,730 posts)scientists re not stupid. They can take that apart and build their own drones. And it was revealed ( in our elections), some American corporations do have investments in Iran as well as other countries. Our Government needs to stop lying. Think about the American Jewish citizen that is trapped in a Cuban prison. And then some in Congress want to blame the Deficit on its own citizens, rather than their secret spending. Those millionaires in Congress don't want to talk about that spending. Our military Industrial complex is supporting more than the defense of the U.S. And making profits too.
Kelvin Mace
(17,469 posts)right into Iranians hands. I hope they installed a self-destruct, but somehow....
hack89
(39,171 posts)it is not sophisticated. The US Navy buys them straight off the shelf.
backwoodsbob
(6,001 posts)it's a toy with a camera attached.We likely buy them commercially
backwoodsbob
(6,001 posts)why not just buy them off the internet?
http://www.raidentech.com/arfrarecorc3.html
woo me with science
(32,139 posts)OnyxCollie
(9,958 posts)compared to the last US drone the Iranians intercepted.
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marble falls
(57,097 posts)OnyxCollie
(9,958 posts)and the US considered starting a war over it.
Fallen U.S. Drone Nearly Led to Covert Strike in Iran
http://www.theatlanticwire.com/global/2011/12/fallen-us-drone-nearly-led-covert-strike-iran/45857/
New reports on the CIA drone lost in Iran last week reveal the scope of the stealth plane's mission and just how far the U.S. was willing to go to recover it. The Associated Press reports on Wednesday that despite U.S. military statements Monday suggesting the drone was lost while flying a mission in western Afghanistan, Iranian officials say the RQ-170 drone was detected about 140 miles from the border of Afghanistan, deep inside the country's air space. U.S. officials, speaking on background, confirmed the RQ-170 drone had been spying on Iran for years but did not indicate the extent to which it penetrated Iranian air space. They did say the U.S. air base in Shindad, Afghanistan, was designed to launch "surveillance missions and even special operations missions into Iran if deemed necessary."
In a sign of how badly the U.S. wanted the stealth drone back, The Wall Street Journal reports that it contemplated three different operations to recover the fallen drone. One plan involved sending commandos in Afghanistan assisted by U.S. agents in Iran to track down and recover the drone. "Another option would have had a team sneak in to blow up the remaining pieces of the drone," reports the Journal. "A third option would have been to destroy the wreckage with an airstrike."
In the end, officials decided not to carry out the mission for two reasons: a) they feared the strike could be considered an "act of war" and b) it crashed in such a remote area of Iran that officials hoped it wouldn't be found "therefore, leaving the remains where they were could be the safest option."
So what went wrong? While Iran maintains that it shot down the plane using anti-aircraft weaponry, sources inside and outside the military explain to Reuters that most signs indicate a technical malfunction because of the way the RQ-170 is programmed. "The aircraft is flown remotely by pilots based in the United States, but is also programmed to autonomously fly back to the base it departed from if its data link with U.S.-based pilots is lost," a defense analyst who consults for Lockheed told the news agency. "The fact that the plane did not return to its base suggests a 'catastrophic' technical malfunction," another industry insider familiar with drone technology attested. Additionally, "several current and former defense officials" said shooting down the drone was unlikely because of the aircraft's anti-radar coating and ability to fly at high altitudes.
U.S. Made Covert Plan to Retrieve Iran Drone
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970204770404577082822643123332.html?mod=googlenews_wsj
U.S. officials considered conducting a covert mission inside Iran to retrieve or destroy a stealth drone that crashed late last week, but ultimately concluded such a secret operation wasn't worth the risk of provoking a more explosive clash with Tehran, a U.S. official said.
~snip~
But the U.S. official said the drone developed mechanical difficulties and remote pilots lost control of the aircraft, and said officials knew immediately it had crashed in eastern Iran.
~snip~
Under one plan, a team would be sent to retrieve the aircraft. U.S. officials considered both sending in a team of American commandos based in Afghanistan as well as using allied agents inside Iran to hunt down the downed aircraft.
Another option would have had a team sneak in to blow up the remaining pieces of the drone. A third option would have been to destroy the wreckage with an airstrike.
Iran says it's recovered data from captured U.S. spy drone
http://articles.cnn.com/2012-04-22/middleeast/world_meast_iran-us-plane_1_spy-drone-tehran-aerospace-forces?_s=PM:MIDDLEEAST
"This plane is seen as a national capital for us and our words should not disclose all the information that we have very easily," Brig. Gen. Amir Ali Hajizadeh was quoted as saying by the semiofficial Fars News Agency.
"Yet, I provide four cues in here to let the Americans know how deep we could penetrate into the intelligence systems and devices of this drone."
Some data from the drone's memory device revealed it had flown over the Pakistani hideout of al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden two weeks before his death in May, according to Hajizadeh.
"Had we not accessed the plane's softwares and hard discs, we wouldn't have been able to achieve these facts," he said.
Iran claims to be cloning American spy drone
http://www.wjla.com/articles/2012/04/iran-claims-to-be-cloning-american-spy-drone-75172.html
TEHRAN, Iran (AP) — Iran claimed Sunday that it had reverse-engineered an American spy drone captured by its armed forces last year and has begun building a copy.
~snip~
Tehran has flaunted the capture of the Sentinel, a top-secret surveillance drone with stealth technology, as a victory for Iran and a defeat for the United States in a complicated intelligence and technological battle.
~snip~
There are concerns in the U.S. that Iran or other states may be able to reverse-engineer the chemical composition of the drone's radar-deflecting paint or the aircraft's sophisticated optics technology that allows operators to positively identify terror suspects from tens of thousands of feet in the air.
There are also worries that adversaries may be able to hack into the drone's database, as Iran claimed to have done. Some surveillance technologies allow video to stream through to operators on the ground but do not store much collected data. If they do, it is encrypted.
marble falls
(57,097 posts)an Iranian drone flying over Indianapolis, armed or not, off the shelf or custom?
appleannie1
(5,067 posts)Alamuti Lotus
(3,093 posts)It is an interesting routine: deny without knowing much about the case, feign outrage, smugly deny, criticize the very suggestion, deny, deny, deny, (some new story pops up), deny the new thing, quietly admit the old thing, deny, deny, feign outrage, deny, etc etc... it's a vicious cycle.
The whole "that's not our drone" excuse was worn out during the spike of murderous drone attacks over Pakistan and Yemen over the last year or two. Nobody really believes it anymore, but maybe it'll work if applied to a different situation?...doubtful. In other news, the dog really did eat my homework.