U.S. Says Drone Crashed, Refuting Iran's Claim

WSJ ^ | Dec. 16, 2011 | SIOBHAN GORMAN AND ADAM ENTOUS

[indpndtguy]

WASHINGTON—U.S. officials believe the downed spy drone on display in Iran crashed and broke into several pieces, and the Iranians reassembled it to make it appear as though it landed intact.

Officials also believe the Iranians repainted the drone, perhaps to conceal damage done to the body of the plane. In an Iranian video, the drone appears to be white, whereas the actual one is charcoal gray, they said.

Iranian officials last week showed video footage of what they said was the downed drone, the RQ-170 Sentinel. They have variously claimed that they shot it down or remotely skyjacked it before landing the craft in one piece.

The stealth drone was developed for the Air Force, but was flying under the authority of the Central Intelligence Agency when its remote pilots lost control of it late last week, said several U.S. officials.

With one of the most-sophisticated U.S. spy planes now in Iranian hands, U.S. officials continue work to assess how much U.S. intelligence capability may have been compromised. Iran's ability to reassemble the drone and put it on display has prompted U.S. lawmakers to ask why the unmanned drone lacked a feature that caused it to self-destruct if it malfunctioned, a congressional official said.

U.S. officials familiar with the American assessment of the incident forcefully dispute Tehran's assertion and say the pilot lost control of the craft. "They did not commandeer it and steer it to the ground," said an Obama administration official. "It crashed, and they put it back together to make it look whole, like a puzzle being put back together."

[doyle]

From the article: “Officials also believe the Iranians repainted the drone, perhaps to conceal damage done to the body...”

What’s the big deal? My wife has been doing the same thing for decades.

[Marine_Uncle]

“Among the reasons to doubt the claim that GPS jamming had anything to do with the loss of the RQ-170 is a simple overlooked fact,” says a third U.S. analyst. “GPS is not the primary navigation sensor for the RQ-170 or for most other air vehicles. The vehicle gets its flight path orders from an inertial navigation system, which is essentially unjammable unless you want to monkey with the local gravitational field. The GPS updates the INS and cancels its drift. So, even a full GPS blackout would simply cause the vehicle to be a bit less accurate,”

I have viewed a number of the postings on this issue, and had in fact concluded the above being the case. And as has been brought out a number of times, the skin color is wrong.

[Dr. Bogus Pachysandra]

“But they must not have any Grey paint.”

They shoulda used more Duct Tape then! It’s grey/gray,,,,, whichever,,,,,

[Roccus]

The K man really blindsided Ike with that one...

[Iron Munro]

It crashed, it was in pieces and the choices were...send in Seals to
retrieve...destroy it from airstrike...leave it alone and go play golf.

[mongo141]

“You have to go back to about 1959 to get to a time where the government could be somewhat trusted on what they say. Then in the nineties, starting with the first Bush, it started to get really bad, and has been going rapidly downhill ever since, with each successive administration getting more brazen. Now with Zero and his henchmen in office, it’s nothing more than an in-your-face crime syndicate with carefully crafted “statements” released through the Ministry of Propaganda.”

DING! and another big winner...

[BlazingArizona]

Why can’t drones be programmed to blow up automatically if the pilot loses control?

[Marine_Uncle]

Ernie. Check this post out when you get a chance. And if you have time to go through the various URL references by RaceBannon and Enchante in particular... let your blood boil a bit my good man. Here.