Drone Crash in Iran Reveals Secret U.S. Surveillance Effort

The New York Times ^ | December 7, 2011 | Scott Shane and David E. Sanger

[2ndDivisionVet]

The stealth C.I.A. drone that crashed deep inside Iranian territory last week was part of a stepped-up surveillance program that has frequently sent the United States’ most hard-to-detect drone into the country to map suspected nuclear sites, according to foreign officials and American experts who have been briefed on the effort.

Until this week, the high-altitude flights from bases in Afghanistan were among the most secret of many intelligence-collection efforts against Iran, and American officials refuse to discuss it. But the crash of the vehicle, which Iranian officials said occurred more than 140 miles from the border with Afghanistan, blew the program’s cover.

The overflights by the bat-winged RQ-170 Sentinel, built by Lockheed Martin and first glimpsed on an airfield in Kandahar, Afghanistan, in 2009, are part of an increasingly aggressive intelligence collection program aimed at Iran, current and former officials say. The urgency of the effort has been underscored by a recent public debate in Israel about whether time is running out for a military strike to slow Iran’s progress toward a nuclear weapon.....

[BIGLOOK]

Don’t hold your breath long......and if someone gets hung out to dry, it won’t be the one truly responsible for this fiasco.

[Jonty30]

I think you’re right.

But they just can’t say “oopsie” either on a ten million dollar drone. You may as well have forgotten the keys to a tank, while running in for some milk or had a rocket launcher stolen off your back porch.

Somebody is going to pay, if only to provide cover.

[mylife]

Here is something that bugs the crap out of me,

Why is Obama talking smack with Iran as he withdraws our presence in Iraq?

We wont have a soul there by this end of this month.

Something stinks

[mylife]

Why didnt Obama have shit to say about Iran during the Arab spring?

Same with syria

[BIGLOOK]

Good point, My. Consider all that's happened in Libya, Egypt, the rest of N. Africa and now in Syria (certainly no friend either) and consider the prospect of a civil war breaking out in Iraq soon as we leave.

This next year will try all our souls.

[SaraJohnson]

The thing that stinks is the Muslim in the White House.

[Blado]

Bambi is a traitor. He gave away our precious National secrets to our mortal enemies. He must be brought to justice. Soon.

[EverOnward]

http://www.conunderground.com/breaking-we-were-right-obama-gave-iran-the-drone/

[vanilla swirl]

What?
That’s the UFO I saw last summer!!!

/sarc

[Bender2]

Re: Why wasn't it destroyed or recovered?

First, let me say I am so... thankful for Fox News--

Then they go and show their typical bonehead journalist without a clue card... by posting videos of this...

This...

And this... on their initial story on the RQ-170 incident.

And idiot with thumbs can Google "RQ-170" and get images of it such as this one... from Wikipedia

Yet Fox shows... Boeing's X45-C and... AeroVironment's Global Observer very unstealthy unmanned drone!

Gadzooks, is there anyone... at Fox News with any military knowledge or simple common sense?

Now, on the videos from Iran I've circled in red the apparent 'welds' here... and here... where they took off and reattached the wings.

So the Obamanation has certainly allowed his raghead buddies a good, long look at one of our most secret military aircraft!

Bendy? I... have a question--

What is it... honey?

What are those two huge bumps... on the top of the wings?

Hummmm-- I'll tell ya... tonight at bedtime.

[DaveA37]

Looking at the photograph with the two men standing in front of the “supposed” drone, don’t you think it’s strange that the area beneath the drone is blocked from view? Why would they want to keep you from seeing the underside or landing gear? Strange.........

Is that a “real” drone or perhaps a model copy?

[Vaduz]

Wonder why they risked a drone when a satllite could see the same thing?,or are they looking at something else??.

[sauron]

Wonder why they risked a drone when a satllite could see the same thing?,or are they looking at something else??.

Satellites can't take air samples to check for radiation, for one. Nor do they deliver a hellfire missile to a target.

Satellites in low orbit pass overhead rather rapidly. Drones loiter, and grab excellent photos, even in, shall we say, non-visible spectra. Satellites in high orbit may be stationary over a target, true, but the extra distance in that high orbit negates much of that optical resolution. Better to have a low-flying drone.

Sauron

[Vaduz]

Better to have a low-flying drone may be true but is the risk worth it?.Can they use the tech to find a way to down one?.

[vanilla swirl]

“Looking at the photograph with the two men standing in front of the “supposed” drone, don’t you think it’s strange that the area beneath the drone is blocked from view? Why would they want to keep you from seeing the underside or landing gear? Strange.........

Is that a “real” drone or perhaps a model copy?”

If it truly “crash-landed” then the underside would be damaged. But then, why would they want to hide damage? Unless there is no damage and it had a soft controlled landing. Early in the article it mentions that it is a high altitude drone. If it was high altitude then it couldn’t be “seen” with the naked eye to be taken down by an AK47. It sure looks anti-radar-stealth capable so it probably didn’t show up on radar and taken down by a SAM.

You do bring up an interesting possibility; it’s only a model! Why would we acknowledge it as our lost drone when we know it to be fake?
Did Obama actually give the order not to self-destruct? Or is this just a huge misdirection story?

I’m beginning to feel that we’ve been had. Gloriously deceived in every way.
We are living in Alice in Wonderland. Nothing is as it is portrayed.

[trebb]

I seriously don’t understand why a drone does not have a “black box” like all airliners have, that includes a GPS transponder, and a few pounds of plastic explosive to blow the drone to hell when nesessary!

Since intitial reports said they lost contact with the drone, I would assume that the Iranis were able to jam signals and that may have prevented a "push button" remote destruction. In the past, it would probably have had an auto self-destruct, but with the idiots we have in power today, it may have been nixed due to the possibility of debris falling on "innocent women and children" or the possibiity of it being near someone.

The fact that it landed intact really bothers me. I don't know if it has on-board autocontrols that could find a place to land and execute the landing - that opens the door for one of two things:
1. The pilot had control and landed it.
2. The Iranis had data to be able to control it.

The whole thing stinks like a dumpster behind the fishmarket on a 95 degree day.

[elpadre]

Iran has been under surveillance for years - by Israel and the US.

[tanknetter]

don’t you think it’s strange that the area beneath the drone is blocked from view? Why would they want to keep you from seeing the underside or landing gear? Strange.........

If you look at pictures of other RQ-170s, you'll see a large optics package on the underside, right behind the nose gear.

My belief is that the truly "sensitive" technologies of the -170 are there, and were either destroyed in the "soft" landing, or by a small self-destruct pyrotechnics package. The Iranians clearly don't want to us to see that area, and therefore what they really got from the aircraft. If there weren't damage, they'd surely be showing that area.

People should keep in mind that the airframe-based stealth technologies seen in the -170 look pretty dated, if not non-existent (like the complete lack of faceting on gear and panel doors). Composite airframe components (assuming that's what the -170 is made of. It could be made of laminated wood for all we know) are nothing new - the Iranians could get that from Russia and China. Neither is RAM - the Iranians could get samples from the Serbs from that F-117 that was shot down.

[capydick]

Why wasn't it destroyed or recovered?

I seriously don’t understand why a drone does not have a “black box” like all airliners have, that includes a GPS transponder, and a few pounds of plastic explosive to blow the drone to hell when nesessary!

Everyone has been asking these same questions since the incident but - what if it wasnt accidental? What if we created a mock up and intentionally let the Iranian's get this thing and download some virus filled software onto their computers when they captured it?

I'd like to think this is true but I also remember reading somewhere that this software is very easy to hack in order to take control of one. I think the article even mentioned the Iranians who were doing the hacking.

But - it's also possible Barack OAllah's stealth government allowed this to be captured by the Iranian's - his track record with dealing with the Mad Mullah's is a very poor one, and for a reason.

[Georgia Girl 2]

My fiancee’ read an unsubstantiated report that it was taken down by an EMP which is why it looks so good. He also read that its possible the CIA is running a little covert operation and the drone is a fake. Who knows?