Iran official: We tricked the U.S. surveillance drone to land intact

Haaretz ^

[alex2011]

"The GPS navigation is the weakest point," the Iranian military official told the Monitor, calling the downing an "electronic ambush" of secret drone.

"By putting noise [jamming] on the communications, you force the bird into autopilot. This is where the bird loses its brain," he added.

The engineer added that the Iranians were able to make the drone land "on its own where we wanted it to, without having to crack the remote-control signals and communications” from the US control center."

[alex2011]

Basically what he says they did, was they jammed the communication link base-to-uav, and when the drone goes into fail-safe auto pilot mode. They spoof the GPS signal to make it think its in friendly territory to land. GPS is very weak signal from Geo Sync sats and is not encrypted. The drone obviously didn't have any other backup navigation like INS, or radio beacons, etc..

[Tallguy]

GPS is very weak signal from Geo Sync sats and is not encrypted. The drone obviously didn't have any other backup navigation like INS, or radio beacons, etc..

I think I understand what is being suggested here, but aren't military GPS signals encrypted? Wonder how difficult that would be to 'crack'?

[dragnet2]

The Iranians are not quite as stupid as the Iraqis.

[US_MilitaryRules]

This problem can be easily solved. Build a drone as a solid bomb and have them hijack it! Heh heh heh.

[DoughtyOne]

Sounds like Tehran Bob is on the air...

We’re led to believe the drone’s signal was blocked, and in reaction it landed intact at an enemy airbase, without new programming.

I’m thinking the drone had backup programing, but I doubt seriously it included landing intact at a random enemy airbase so an enemy could have pristine access to all it’s technology.

This would make a great thing to place on a small paper, and wrap bubble-gum with.

[sam_paine]

I think I understand what is being suggested here, but aren't military GPS signals encrypted? Wonder how difficult that would be to 'crack'?

I believe that extended accuracy info is encrypted. But if the signal-to-noise ratio is bad and it's getting garbage on the encrypted part but they were jamming it with viable coarse nav data, then the UAV just did the best it could with the data it had.

We are so far ahead we don't seem to be looking over our own shoulders.

[RitchieAprile]

with 256 bit encryption it would be practically uncrackable
in real time.

[US_MilitaryRules]

But they are close!

[muawiyah]

So, what we did is send the Iranians a drone that's easy to subvert.

They will now copy it in the thousands.

[alex2011]

Most likely, not very due to the nature of GPS it Broadcasts same signal to every device, thus every device should have the same key to decrypt it. Since the data is very short to begin with,and the GPS system design is decades old,my bet is that it was not hard to either crack the key, or retrieve it from some Mil device. Unless they are using the Public-key crypto to authenticate the transmitter. However, its unlikely, because the system was build long time ago and designed for not very sophisticated receivers.

[tcrlaf]

Not really surprising.

Communications is always the Achilles heel of remote operations, of any kind.

You can bet the Chinese and Russians have been working on a solution for that, for a LONG time.

And it’s also why the idea of a pilotless fighter fleet is just fantasy.

[RightOnTheBorder]

If true, why tell us. If that really was the weak link we can fix it. Why not say nothing and knock a few more down before we caught on?

[massgopguy]

Probably why it didn’t Self Destruct.

[sam_paine]

I’m thinking the drone had backup programing, but I doubt seriously it included landing intact at a random enemy airbase so an enemy could have pristine access to all it’s technology.

There was also an air crew not too long ago that had extensive backup training, and I doubt seriously that training included landing intact at a Chinese enemy airbase so an enemy could have pristine access to all it’s technology.

[dragnet2]

We’re led to believe the drone’s signal was blocked, and in reaction it landed intact at an enemy airbase, without new programming.

Hey, that's basically what they did and in the process obtained a lot of top shelf U.S. technology.

Trust me, the Iranians are a bit smarter than the Iraqis.

[alex2011]

The GPS signal is not encrypted with anything close to 256Bit.
Not to mention all devices have the same key, so you can pre-crack it. That’s why you put redundant independent nav systems on those things,like Inertial Guidance, and radio Beacons installed on land bases, with much more powerful signal than you get from GPS.

[MichaelP]

They might very well have done it. The fact that it landed safely in Iran kind of back up that story. If so, heads ought to roll for not think of that possibility. It still should have been destroyed though...

Mike

[crosslink]

This is BS, the programing on the bird is to return to base if cut the way I understand. They are not telling what I think this article confirms which is they have hijacked our technology with the help of the Chicoms.

http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2011/10/drone-virus-kept-quiet/

[MichaelP]

They might very well have done it. The fact that it landed safely in Iran kind of back up that story. If so, heads ought to roll for not think of that possibility. It still should have been destroyed though...

Mike

[Moonman62]

The drone obviously didn't have any other backup navigation like INS, or radio beacons, etc..

If they were able to spoof the GPS signal, backup navigation systems wouldn't be activated.