Iran downs RQ-170 Sentinel Spy Drone

W.G.Ewald

Defence Professionals/ DFI member of 2
Professional
Joined
Sep 28, 2011
Messages
14,139
Likes
8,594
DailyTech - Iran: Yes, We Hacked the U.S.'s Drone, and Here's How We Did It

The Christian Science Monitor report cites an unnamed European intelligence source as claiming that Iran in an unreported incident managed to "blind" a CIA spy satellite by "aiming a laser burst quite accurately" at its optics. And in September Google Inc.'s (GOOG) security certificates were hacked to give access to 300,000 Iranian citizens Gmail accounts, in what circumstantial evidence indicated was a "state-driven attack," potentially designed to ferret out spys or dissidents.
Exclusive: Iran hijacked US drone, says Iranian engineer (Video) - CSMonitor.com
 

nrj

Ambassador
Joined
Nov 16, 2009
Messages
9,658
Likes
3,911
Country flag
Iran Says it Is Copying US Drone

TEHRAN, Iran—Iran claimed Sunday that it had recovered data from an American spy drone that went down in Iran last year including that it was used to spy on Osama bin Laden's house weeks before he was killed by U.S. forces. Iran also said it was building a copy of the surveillance aircraft.

This type of drone has been used in Afghanistan for years and was used to keep watch on bin Laden's compound in Pakistan, but U.S. officials have said little about the history of the particular drone now in Iran's possession. Iran has also been known to exaggerate its military or technological prowess.

Tehran says it brought down the RQ-170 Sentinel, a top-secret surveillance drone with stealth technology, and has flaunted the capture as a victory for Iran and a defeat for the U.S. The U.S. says the drone malfunctioned and played down any suggestion that Iran could mine the aircraft for sensitive information because of measures taken to limit the intelligence value of drones operating over hostile territory.

The drone went down in December in eastern Iran and was recovered by Iran almost completely intact. After initially saying only that it had lost a drone operating near the Afghan-Iran border, U.S. officials eventually confirmed the drone was monitoring Iran's military and nuclear facilities.

Washington has asked for it back, a request Iran rejected.

The chief of the aerospace division of the powerful Revolutionary Guards, Gen. Amir Ali Hajizadeh, told state television that the captured surveillance drone is a "national asset" for Iran and that he couldn't reveal full technical details.

But he did provide some samples of the data that he claimed Iranian experts had recovered from the aircraft, state television reported.

"There is almost no part hidden to us in this aircraft. We recovered part of the data that had been erased. There were many codes and characters. But we deciphered them by the grace of God," Gen. Hajizadeh said.

Among the drone's past missions, he said, was surveillance of the compound in northwest Pakistan in which bin Laden lived and was killed. Gen. Hajizadeh claimed the drone flew over bin Laden's compound two weeks before the al Qaeda leader was killed there in May 2011 by U.S. Navy SEALs.

He also listed a litany of tests and maintenance that the drone had undergone, all of which he said had been recorded in the aircraft's memory. According to Gen. Hajizadeh, the drone was taken to California on Oct. 16, 2010, for "technical work" and then to Kandahar, Afghanistan, on Nov. 18, 2010. He said it carried out flights from Afghanistan but ran into some problems that U.S. experts were unable to fix. Then the drone was taken to Los Angeles in December 2010 where the aircraft's sensors underwent testing, Gen. Hajizadeh said.

"If we had not achieved access to software and hardware of this aircraft, we would be unable to get these details. Our experts are fully dominant over sections and programs of this plane," he said.

Gen. Hajizadeh said he provided the details to prove to the Americans "how far we've penetrated into this aircraft."

The U.S. Defense Department said it doesn't discuss intelligence matters and wouldn't comment on the Iranian claims.

The semiofficial Mehr news agency said Iran had reverse-engineered the aircraft and has begun using that knowledge to build a copy of the drone.

Sen. Joe Lieberman, an independent from Connecticut who chairs the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee said on "Fox News Sunday" that he views the reports with skepticism.

"There is a history here of Iranian bluster, particularly, now when they are on the defensive because of the economic sanctions against them. Look, it was not good for the U.S. when the drone went down in Iran and not good when the Iranians grabbed it. I don't have confidence at this point that they are really able to make a copy of it," Mr. Lieberman said.

Iran has gone a long way in reverse-engineering some technologies in the past three decades, particularly in the areas of nuclear and missile technology.

Iran's famous Shahab-3 missile, first displayed in 1998, is believed to be based on North Korea's Nodong-1 design. Iran obtained its first centrifuge from Pakistan in 1986 and later reverse engineered it to develop its now advanced uranium enrichment program.

Centrifuges, which purify uranium gas, are the central component of a process that can make fuel for power plants or—at higher levels of processing—weapons.

However, unlike the situation with the drone, the Iranian government usually touts these achievements as the result of an indigenous, homegrown research.

One area where there is concern is whether Iran or other states could reverse-engineer the chemical composition of the drone's radar-deflecting paint or the aircraft's sophisticated optics technology that allows operators to positively identify terror suspects from tens of thousands of feet in the air.

How much data there is on the drone is another question. Some surveillance technologies allow video to stream through to operators on the ground but don't store much collected data. If they do, it is encrypted.

Media reports claimed this week that Russia and China have asked Tehran to provide them with information on the drone but Iran's Defense Ministry denied this.

Associated Press

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB100...34048380666.html?mod=WSJ_World_LEFTSecondNews
 

Ray

The Chairman
Professional
Joined
Apr 17, 2009
Messages
43,132
Likes
23,834
I am sure they are doing so with external assistance from 'friends'.
 

Blackwater

Senior Member
Joined
Jan 9, 2012
Messages
21,157
Likes
12,211
Iran Says it Is Copying US Drone

sorry Mr Iran the word "COPY" is been reserved for china only. use some other word:laugh::laugh::laugh::laugh:
 

Mad Indian

Proud Bigot
Senior Member
Joined
Jan 27, 2012
Messages
12,835
Likes
7,762
Country flag
but their friend china can copy interiors .They have done in the past by successfully copied ameeriki tomahawk cruise missile named Babur
But i thought, Chicoms are not yet their Friends. I thought only the P*ki friendship extended even above the Himalayas:troll::heh:
 

Latest Replies

Global Defence

New threads

Articles

Top