Iran shows film of captured US drone

[gambit]

I find it hilarious people are still debating the authenticity of these photos and footages.

When Iran first made the claims all the wahabis and Iran-haters were dimissing them, asking for footages and photos. Now not only did they receive the photos, but were also verified by dozens of security experts and US officials and yet they are still in denial.

The drone is a plastic model?? Seriously how stupid can you get??

At any rate, do you really believe Iran manufactured a model of one of the most advanced US drones in less than 48 hours after making the claims??

You can never satisfy some people, haters will always be haters. Props to iran, keep doing what you doing.

How do you know if it is NOT just an empty shell? Where are the individual components? The Serbs had far more credible physical evidences of the single downed F-117, so what does Iran has to lose by showing close-ups of individual components that says: Raytheon or other labels from indisputable famous defense contractor? If this is enough to satisfy you, no wonder the ME is so far behind.

 

[westwind]

the Iranian recovered it? or it is a fake?

 

[westwind]

The individual components are on their way to China Don't worry. It is just a guess or maybe a truth?

 

[Obambam]

I understand your feelings. I get the same chuckles when long ago I read the Chinese boys' fantastical claims about the J-20 and notions of what is 'stealth'.

Don't mix your feelings with others. What you are capable of feeling and expressing is the American point of view and its opinions.

The fact that you think it is not plausible for Iran to bring down your drones and downplayed their capability is enough to make every reader burst into laughter. We feel your pain and disappointment Gambit

 

[ephone]

If it is real, I bet China will get her hand on it already or quite soon. There is no way in hell that Iran will return it to U.S. It will also be soon enough that the Chinese version RQ170 will be exported to Iran, Pakistan or other countries that are interested. BTW, I think our version will be a lot affordable.

As for how it was brought down, well, keep guessing.

Iran may have some breakthroughs as well. Just like China, those naysayers have doubted China this or that for the last 30 years, each time China has proved them to be wrong. However, they are still interested in saying: it is impossible for China to do this/that... blah, blah, blah...

Well, if it fulfills their own satisfaction, why not?

 

[gambit]

Don't mix your feelings with others. What you are capable of feeling and expressing is the American point of view and its opinions.

The fact that you think it is not plausible for Iran to bring down your drones and downplayed their capability is enough to make every reader burst into laughter. We feel your pain and disappointment Gambit

And yet those same readers have yet to see a reasonably credible explanation -- how.

 

[Obambam]

And yet those same readers have yet to see a reasonably credible explanation -- how.

They already got the joke having seen your incredible series of explanations. For them to get the joke, all they did was to watch the video

 

[gambit]

They already got the joke having seen your incredible series of explanations. For them to get the joke, all they did was to watch the video

And speaking of 'incredible'...

The US said we lost a drone flying out of Afghanistan.

Iran said it is in possession of said drone.

The 'obvious' from combining those two facts is: Iran 'hacked' into the American drone program from Nevada. Iran have 'anti-stealth' radar. Then Iran 'hijacked' this drone from out of the Afghan airspace and into Iranian airspace.

Yeah......So much for critical thinking.

 

[500]

He stands very close to the camera, and the wingtips are at the back of the drone, but he stands at the front of the drone. Thus, the wingtips are much farther from the camera. It's really too difficult to estimate the wingspan from the photos and we should just accept the quote of 26m that they have given.

The wingspan if the drone shown by Iran is about 4.8 times bigger than its height on that platform. And its height is about humans height. That means the wingspan will be about 8-9 m. Nowhere even close to 26 m, not even half of it:

Here another, more crude estimate:

The wingspan of that thing is less than 6 generals. I.e. less than 11 m.

 

[silko]

^^ nice work there 500...

 

[gambit]

the Iranian recovered it? or it is a fake?

These are SOME of the questions you must ask...

- So what if there are damages? If anything, signs of damages can present a more credible INITIAL positive impression of a claim. In mishaps, investigators usually home in on the damaged areas/components because they hold the clues for the true cause of the mishap.

- Although the flying wing design is a natural lifting body design, less prone to 'out of control' conditions than 'conventional' design, and tends to enter 'glide' mode when controls are relaxed, the U-2 that was shot down over Soviet territory still had considerable physical damages from the hard landing. The wreckage contains many large sections that was clearly recognizable by the US as 'U-2' related.

Aerospaceweb.org | Ask Us - Gary Powers and the U-2

Surviving wreckage looked remarkably intact,...

Particularly the 4th photo from top.

For this remarkably intact body displayed by the Iranians, we can reasonably conclude one main thing: That a slight pitch-up maneuver was performed by the aircraft as common by any aircraft while performing a landing.

RQ-4 Global Hawk Crash At China Lake - YouTube

So either the drone was programmed to locate an airfield and land itself according to how aircrafts would land themselves under human control, or that it is true that Iran did managed to literally assume authority and control of the drone and landed it. Like it or not, the former speculation is the most credible, less believable is if Iran managed to have a human agent in the American drone program in Nevada, and least plausible is that Iran managed to crack a triple-DES encrypted real time two-way airborne communication link.

- If Iran did managed to assume authority and control of the drone and land it, either in a safe 'wheels down' manner or even in a rough 'belly landing' glide manner, then why bother to hide the underside with all those propaganda banners? Let everyone see close-ups of the landing gears. Surely someone from the American side would recognize the components and broadcast their part IDs on the Internet. Iran cannot be that stupid not to recognize the propaganda value of absolutely certain exposure of identification. If it was a rough 'belly landing' approach and even if the drone tumbled a bit, so what? If the Soviets had no problems displaying Powers' U-2 in all of its pieces, why should Iran?

Here are ROCAF U-2s on display in mainland China...

Those U-2s are intact but certainly nowhere as undamaged as this drone.

 

[Jango]

The condition that the plane got out of reach of the home base for some reason, and then landed on it's own pre planned destination seems the most plausible. But , the alternate airfield should be in friendly territory no? Why in Iran, or did it just run out of fuel? Or was the fuel contaminated?

The story that Iran hacked the plane is really not believable.

 

[gambit]

The condition that the plane got out of reach of the home base for some reason, and then landed on it's own pre planned destination seems the most plausible. But , the alternate airfield should be in friendly territory no? Why in Iran, or did it just run out of fuel? Or was the fuel contaminated?

The story that Iran hacked the plane is really not believable.

Yes, the alternate airfield should be 'friendly'. But is it possible to leave out that condition? Yes. Would it be stupid? Yes.

As for fuel, here are the three options that can be built-in I presented that NO ONE successfully disputed in the event of a loss of contact and control...

- Continue on current heading.
- Enter an orbit.
- Self destruct.

Options 1 and 2 offer you a chance of reestablishment of control. Option 3 does not. Remember, just because you lost control it does not mean the loss is permanent, so options 1 and 2 are desirable.

If option 1 is built-in or programmed, then the odds of reestablishing control decreases as the drone gets further away from you. That leave option 2 as the best. But since fuel is a finite factor, either you give the drone programmed instructions on what to do WHEN fuel quantity is spent below a certain level, or you do nothing and just let the drone crash from lack of fuel.

And no, fuel contamination is irrelevant.

Most likely what happened is that contact with the drone was lost and the drone wandered into Iranian airspace. In that course, eventually it was detected because in truth, nothing is invisible to radar. We never claimed such power. Whether the thing presented by Iran is 'the one' or not we do not know.

 

[Bharthi]

Iranians deliberately hide the lower part of the aircraft

 

[lem34]

I look so forward to pakistan hurting american interests. I hope we will take a leaf out of irans book. In fact we should sign a defence pact with iran in the event attack either iran or Pak. we should move some nukes into Iran so we can get nearer to israel where american foreign policy is decided and dictated to poor sad american people