Drone Lost in Iran Was Joint CIA-Military Reconnaissance Plane

FoxNews.com ^ | 12/6/11 | Jennifer Griffin

[ColdOne]

The U.S. drone that apparently fell into Iran's hands was part of a joint CIA-military reconnaissance operation, Fox News has learned.

A senior U.S. official confirmed to Fox News that the spy plane was being used for the CIA-military operation along the Afghan-Iranian border when it lost connectivity and disappeared.

Officials had earlier confirmed the Iranians have the RQ-170 drone, but it was previously unclear what the drone was doing or which agency was operating it.

After Iran's military made the questionable claim Sunday that it had shot down the drone, the CIA at first referred questions to the Pentagon.

The NATO-led military coalition then issued a brief statement, appearing to describe the mission as part of the routine military operation in Afghanistan.

[Temujinshordes]

What? No self destruct mechanism? I would think that such an Intel platform would surely have a means of self destruction to preclude just this, falling into enemy hands.

[Petruchio]

No self destruct mechanism?

Like Windows Vista???

[Yo-Yo]

Rumor has it that this drone was shot down with nothing more than a Russian supplied jammer.

So much for the “last manned fighter” crap.

[CodeToad]

“No self destruct mechanism?

Like Windows Vista???”

LOL! That was funny.

[jettester]

Maybe we should just “let” one of our latest “designs” get shot-down (wink/wink) and advertise the fact to the world so that our enemies can reverse engineer it (wink/wink) with back doors built in.

[reefdiver]

think there was much left to the design? If this thing fell un controlled out of the sky from 20,000 feet into your back yard, what do you think you could gain from it? I don’t know myself, just asking.

[gandalftb]

Previous post:

If the Iranians captured it intact, they would already be posing around it and posting photos to embarrass us.

That UAV has so many stealth features the Iranians couldn’t acquire the target. Why haven’t the Iranians said how they shot it down, their air force would be braying like a pack of mules if they had done it.

It also has a self destruct feature. It also can not be jammed and redirected, yup, we thought of that.

What if the Iranians were, say, doing a lot of strange digging and we needed a closer look that satellites couldn’t deliver. What if that UAV went OOPS! out of control and just happened to stray over that area until it ran out of fuel.

OK, we’ve learned a bit since Frances Gary Powers...........

24 posted on Tue Dec 06 2011 09:47:39 GMT-0800 (Pacific Standard Time)

[gandalftb]

Previous post:

If the Iranians captured it intact, they would already be posing around it and posting photos to embarrass us.

That UAV has so many stealth features the Iranians couldn’t acquire the target. Why haven’t the Iranians said how they shot it down, their air force would be braying like a pack of mules if they had done it.

It also has a self destruct feature. It also can not be jammed and redirected, yup, we thought of that.

What if the Iranians were, say, doing a lot of strange digging and we needed a closer look that satellites couldn’t deliver. What if that UAV went OOPS! out of control and just happened to stray over that area until it ran out of fuel.

OK, we’ve learned a bit since Frances Gary Powers...........

24 posted on Tue Dec 06 2011 09:47:39 GMT-0800 (Pacific Standard Time)

[gandalftb]

We’re telling as much of the truth as we can. Iran is getting the message that they are being watched by us and just like bin Laden, we can reach out and touch them anywhere, anytime.

[Moonman62]

From Wiki:

The RQ-170 has a flying wing design containing a single (as yet unknown) engine and is estimated by Aviation Week as being approximately 66 feet in wingspan.[10] Its takeoff weight is estimated as being greater than the RQ-3 DarkStar's, which was 8,500 pounds. The design lacks several elements common to stealth engineering, namely notched landing gear doors and sharp leading edges. It has a curved wing planform, and the exhaust is not shielded by the wing.[10] Aviation Week postulates that these elements suggest the designers have avoided 'highly sensitive technologies' due to the near certainty of eventual operational loss inherent with a single engine design and a desire to avoid the risk of compromising leading edge technology.

[jyro]

I have doubts that this was a accident. They have a self destruct built in as well as a gps position transmitter so it can be retrieved or blown up if landing intact in enemy hands. It's just too convenient that our foremost Muslim enemy has our most top secret weapon. Under this president, I can only imagine how this happened.

[101voodoo]

Seriously, it is a great failure in the design that this aircraft did not have a self destruct mechanism set to engage when connectivity is lost for a pre determined period of time.

[tanknetter]

So much for the “last manned fighter” crap.

The conspiracy folks on the aviation boards are already talking up that the loss was deliberate at a time when the F-35 is on the chopping block.

Just like those "leaks" about Indian Su-27s thrashing USAF F-15s during the debate over cancelling the F-22.

[tanknetter]

Aviation Week postulates that these elements suggest the designers have avoided 'highly sensitive technologies' due to the near certainty of eventual operational loss

The problem with the Aviation Week postulation(s) is that while they are observationally correct, for the most part they don't represent "sensitive technologies".

For instance, anyone looking at public-source pictures of stealth aircraft know not only about faceting edges, but also that they are generally faceted at the same angles. Bill Sweetman, who is Aviation Week's stealth guy (or at least used to be) quantified this practice two decades ago with one of his first analyses of the F-117.

My theory on the RQ-170 is that, like the Predator, it was really just a technologies demonstrator that was pressed into production service to fulfill an immediate need.

[Cindy]

H/T: twitter.com/#!/El_Grillo1/status/144532561723531264

#

http://www.iranfocus.com/en/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=24151:iran-says-downed-us-drone-was-deep-in-its-airspace

“Iran says downed US drone was deep in its airspace”
WEDNESDAY, 07 DECEMBER 2011

The Associated Press
By NASSER KARIMI, Associated Press

TEHRAN, Iran (AP) —

“Iranian state radio said Wednesday the stealth-version of the RQ-170 unmanned aircraft was detected over the eastern town of Kashmar, some 140 miles (225 kilometers) from the border with Afghanistan.”

[Jet Jaguar]

Thanks for the ping.

[Cindy]

You’re welcome Jet Jaguar.

[SunkenCiv]

Thanks ColdOne.