US Air Force orders General Atomics Avenger (Iran test?)

flightglobal.com ^ | 12/12/2011 | ZACH ROSENBERG

[PreciousLiberty]

The US Air Force has ordered the General Atomics Aeronautical Systems Predator C Avenger for deployment to Afghanistan. A single aircraft is being procured, marking what may be the type's first order.

Although termed a test aircraft, the order fulfils an urgent request by secretary of defense Leon Panetta for reconnaissance and strike assets. Several untested aircraft and systems have been purchased or deployed under urgent operational requirements, including the Northrop Grumman MQ-8B Fire Scout currently operating in Afghanistan.

"This aircraft will be used as a test asset and will provide a significantly increased weapons and sensors payload capacity on an aircraft that will be able to fly to targets much more rapidly than the MQ-9 [Reaper] UAS," the USAF said in an announcement. "Since it has an internal weapons bay and four hardpoints on each wing it will also allow greater flexibility and will accommodate a large selection of next generation sensor and weapons payloads."

The request for the aircraft was made earlier in 2011, before the crash of a stealthy Lockheed RQ-170 Sentinel in Iran.

[jonascord]

Couple of things:
One is that when the F-117 first came out of the Closet at Groom Lake, it sported a mottled pastel paint scheme, pinks and blues, since that actually works better at night in the air. However, the silk scarf zoomies didn't like the colors, since true fighter jocks don't fly pink aircraft. Hence the black paint job. (Look up Lord Mountbatten's pink ships during WW2.)

Point 2: If the Iranians could electronically spoof drone guidance systems, you'd thing they could do it more than once. I'd vote that the craft itself had a mechanical failure, and the Iranians are just doing an Obama, and presuming that, since they shot AT it, Insh'Allah, they shot it down.

[for-q-clinton]

The article said that EVERYTHING BUT GPS was encrypted. So they just attacked the weak point.

I know it’s kind of shocking to me. But that thing was completely in tact...no way they got it by accident.

[justlurking]

The article said that EVERYTHING BUT GPS was encrypted. So they just attacked the weak point.

I haven't seen the article that you reference, but I find that to be EXTREMELY unlikely.

The GPS system was originally designed to broadcast two signals: an encrypted high-precision code, and an unencrypted code with less precision. Military devices use the encrypted code. Civilian devices use the unencrypted code.

The unencrypted code was intentionally "dithered" in order to reduce the precision, using a feature called "selective availability" (or "SA"). The level of dithering can be adjusted. But, SA was eventually turned off in 2000, so that even civilian devices get the same level of precision as military devices.

However, SA can be turned back on/up at the drop of a hat, at least until GPS III satellites begin launching in 2014. Reportedly, those satellites do not have SA functionality.

[for-q-clinton]

I did a quick bing search and this came up...not the exact same article but it’s the same general content:
http://news.softpedia.com/news/Iranians-Capture-US-Drone-with-GPS-Attack-241075.shtml

Evidently military grade GPS is also very hackable.

[Vermont Lt]

It’s a rush order, because the Iranians were pissed because they got the old model.

[JPJones]

I would also think (though I’m not completely sure) that GPS spoofing must come from above since the GPS antennas “look” upwards at satellites. Therefore it may be quite difficult for the Iranians to spoof very high-flying aircraft.>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

Iran has close ties with Russia (and their satellites)