Pentagon admits Iranian TV footage DOES show U.S. stealth drone..but insists it WASN'T shot down

UK Daily Mail ^ | 12/8/2011 | MARK DUELL

[SMCC1]

Mystery surrounds how American's most sophisticated spy plane was captured by Iran after it was paraded on Iranian state television earlier today in mint condition.

Iran claims the lost RQ-170 Sentinel was on a surveillance mission last week when it was detected by Iranians over Kashmar and was downed by their armed forces.

But the fact the drone is in such good shape contradicts Iran's claim it was shot down - and backs up U.S. claims that Tehran did not bring it down through electronic, cyber or any other means.

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2071741/Is-downed-U-S-stealth-drone-Iranian-TV-airs-footage-military-officials-inspecting-craft.html#ixzz1g0LLMLpg

[Ronin]

Well, let’s hope so anyhow. Maybe they blew the electronics in such a way as to keep them from being salvaged, but if what’s being shown is the real thing, we’ve lost a lot of stealth technology that is going to be reverse engineered by somebody.

[Las Vegas Dave]

The drone looks to be the real deal.
(Look at their insult to US of the desecration of our flag - on the wall behind the ragheads soldiers.)

[Eagle of Liberty]

The most brilliant idea in history - something you design to fly over enemy territory is also designed to land on its own if it gets lost. Sometimes I think I’m living in a Monty Python world.

Not just land on its own, but return to base.

"The official said the possibility that the Iranians or someone else hacked into the drone’s satellite communications is doubly alarming because it would mean that Iranian or other cyber-warfare officers were able to disable the Sentinel’s automatic self-destruct, holding pattern and return-to-base mechanisms. Those are intended to prevent the plane’s secret flight control, optical, radar, surveillance and communications technology from falling into the wrong hands if its controllers at Creech Lake Air Force Base or the Tonopah Test Range, both in Nevada, lose contact with it."

Iran Shows Off Downed U.S. Spy Drone on TV

[gandalftb]

It’s a fake, we have satellite photos of the crash site to prove it. Besides, the RQ-170 doesn’t have an intake grill. It’s all here:

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2817979/posts

[stormer]

There’s no stealth technology in that UAV and the electronics are off the shelf - that’s my point - this is not a big deal. We lost an asset that was designed to be expendable and dumped into the lap of the enemy.

[gandalftb]

Exactly, the entire purpose to even having a UAV is to have a platform that can go into high-risk-of-being-shot-down areas.

With that in mind, you would only put technology on board that the enemy can’t use or obtain in other ways.

[stormer]

There sure are a lot of hand wringing bed-wetters around here...

[JimRed]

Don’t discount the possibility of a controller of the craft being a closeted Muslim...