Posted on 05/12/2014 6:54:12 PM PDT by mandaladon
Iran has unveiled its own copy of an American stealth drone it captured in late 2011, claiming to have cracked the “secrets” of the bat-wing craft and added weapons capabilities.
Today, Fars News Agency reported that while Iran’s duplicate of the US RQ-170 Sentinel drone was smaller, it also had a “bombing capability to attack the US warships in any possible battle.” The story in Persian was headlined: “America’s nightmare has become reality.” State television showed footage on Sunday it said was of a US aircraft carrier in the Persian Gulf filmed by an Iranian drone
The drone replica was unveiled at an Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) exhibition on Sunday, where Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was briefed on how the drone, its systems, and structure had been reverse-engineered. He called it a “sweet day.”
The stealth replica would “soon take a test flight,” an IRGC officer said on Sunday. Aerospace chief Amir Ali Hajijadeh said today that they are working on two more models of the replica drone.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
Quite the grand exhibit area. They swept it so clean you can’t see a trace of the previous day’s goat auction.
That plane might make a doable missile.
I doubt it can float, let alone fly!
Iranian Submarine Lost While Practicing To Sink U.S. Aircraft Carrier
Is it made of figs or dates?
Such as the seven (7!) Kenwood car audio decks in the instrument panel?
Well sure, a guys gotta have good music.
Um, I was just wondering where the engine intake be...
Nice plywood job covered with Behr premium exterior latex paint. The shopping cart casters are a nice touch.
Made of high speed ecta-poly obtainium.
This from a country that fought an 8 year war with Iraq to a stalemate, losing at least 250,000 solders. It took how many days for the U.S. to defeat Iraq?
Iran is a legend in their own mind.
That was my first thought, as well.
Formed fiberglass. What are the little downturned winglets on the rearwings? Sort of a nod to Clint Eastwood’s super amazing fighter from the 70’s, Firefox?
The fiberglass hull gets in the way of the buttons on each side of the pilot’s seat, of the unmanned plane.
“Why couldn’t the US have engineered a destruct mechanism into the drone to prevent this capture from happening?”
Good question.
Yes, our first radio controlled drones were for target practice of the F-104 way back in 1957 in Florida.
How do you say Kamikaze drone in Iranian?
Looks like they have a working StarGate.
So, they can make something that looks...sorta like...the Sentinnel. It is definitely smaller.
But what is inside of it?
They also produced their version of a fifth generation fighter...which when it was revealed what its components were, and when people got a hard look at it, it was clear that it would never fly.
Until we see these in the air...and then until we see how they perform, this is just another mockup on an Iranian display floor.
the “self destruct” on unmanned systems is usually just an ‘auger in’ command, which requires communication with the air vehicle. As far as explosives and such? Weight and drag are the enemies of endurance.
I like how they managed to “produce” a stealth aircraft, but couldn’t find the time for a HUD or HOTAS.
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