Iranians shoot down US drone?
Discussion
jbi said:
petemurphy said:
amazing looking thing have you seen the window close up - i imagine a threatening red light to come from inside
you are probably thinking of the British stealth drone "taranis" mock ups
As for the shield, I'd imagine they want to hide from the public the level of damage to the underside as this is where all the "intersting" stuff is. They don't want anyone to know how much (if any) information they'll get from it.
I'm certainly beginning to think what they have is nowhere near what took off from the U.S airbase.
Either they've salvaged the real upper fuselage and wings and that's all they've got which was intact or (less likely) they've mocked it up as best they could using some intact bits and some they've made themselves.
It's very suspicious there is no video or photos of the back or underside of the drone and the hi-res photos look totally staged with the two men very obviously posed.
The U.S will probably play along so Iran thinks they've got one over on them, but I'm yet to be convinced the Iranians have anything useful or sensitive there. I think they'd want to show off the insides of the drone as well as the fuselage if that was the case.
Going one step further, it is conceivable that drone was meant to 'crash land' and it's acting as some sort of decoy containing misleading or obsolete technology. (that sounds a bit tin-hattish, I suppose).
Either way, something isn't right with the story coming from Iran as you might expect.
Either they've salvaged the real upper fuselage and wings and that's all they've got which was intact or (less likely) they've mocked it up as best they could using some intact bits and some they've made themselves.
It's very suspicious there is no video or photos of the back or underside of the drone and the hi-res photos look totally staged with the two men very obviously posed.
The U.S will probably play along so Iran thinks they've got one over on them, but I'm yet to be convinced the Iranians have anything useful or sensitive there. I think they'd want to show off the insides of the drone as well as the fuselage if that was the case.
Going one step further, it is conceivable that drone was meant to 'crash land' and it's acting as some sort of decoy containing misleading or obsolete technology. (that sounds a bit tin-hattish, I suppose).
Either way, something isn't right with the story coming from Iran as you might expect.
robmlufc said:
badgers_back said:
Thats so fake
The might have some bits of one but that aint it
Looks about the right shape, colour, size. Only one dent in the left wing though? Underside might be a mess if the gear was down when it landed/crashed.The might have some bits of one but that aint it
If your flying at 50,000 feet you don't paint it yellow
The other thing is that airframes are all coloured a specific colour for a specific reason, based on the job they're intended to do.
Every image from the US of this type of aircraft has it in grey, the one the Iranians are parading certainly isn't grey.
I definitely think it's a mock up, or a set up by the US (colouring it sand, so they know the one the Iranians parade is the right one, not a real one).
Every image from the US of this type of aircraft has it in grey, the one the Iranians are parading certainly isn't grey.
I definitely think it's a mock up, or a set up by the US (colouring it sand, so they know the one the Iranians parade is the right one, not a real one).
so they can build advanced nuclear tech but can't mix grey paint?
daveparry said:
And if it was captured unscathed, why is it sat on some pallets and not on its proper undercarriage? It must have landed very gently after falling from a million miles up!
they probably think it's that clever that it'll simply walk out the building and fly away on it's own so they've stuck it on some pallets 
AshVX220 said:
That'll be the air intake for the Engine. The above Taranis, isn't a mock up, it's the real one, the red thing is a cover to prevent a) Dust and b) Pictures.
Yes I am aware about the dust cover... it's the concept of the red, not physically what it is.Wasn't aware that was the real thing though... cheers for that
daveparry said:
Looks nothing like the drone? in the vid!
No, this is pure propaganda based on something happening to a U.S. drone which I think was either completely destroyed by a crash-landing or self-destruction. The Iranians found the wreckage before the U.S. could, recovered the wreckage, cleaned up the crash site and then hastily modelled what we have seen from intelligence and Google image searches. All IMO, of course.
Some interesting points here .. http://aviationintel.com/?p=4322
FaineantFreddy said:
daveparry said:
Looks nothing like the drone? in the vid!
No, this is pure propaganda based on something happening to a U.S. drone which I think was either completely destroyed by a crash-landing or self-destruction. The Iranians found the wreckage before the U.S. could, recovered the wreckage, cleaned up the crash site and then hastily modelled what we have seen from intelligence and Google image searches. All IMO, of course.
Other than admitting it was called an RQ-170 and that it did indeed exist, I don't think they published any official images of it, but looking at the original leaked pictures of the "beast" they look identical to what Iran has.
"The Beast" - note the identical raised uplink points either side of the fuselage (and the correct paint job!).
What Iran has:
I'm pretty confident it's a real RQ-170, although one that's been so badly damaged it's required a botched respray (possibly due to fire damage)and an emergency shipment of duct tape to keep it from falling apart.
drivin_me_nuts said:
I wonder just how much gnashing of teeth and pulling of hair is taking place in the US, or is this just viewed with a degree of irritation and annoyance.
An annoyance, but it's not the end of the world. As previously mentioned it is unlikely to be leagues ahead of what the Russians and Chinese are already developing/testing.UAV's are expected to be lost from time to time and arn't loaded with the latest and greatest kit.
obama asks "can i have my ball back please?" ..
http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/12/12/us-iran-...
http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/12/12/us-iran-...
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