The narrative surrounding the lost RQ-170 Sentinel drone over the skies of Iran last week continues to morph, with US military officials now saying that the drone, which was previously supposed to be “patrolling” the border, was actually spying on nuclear sites in Iran.
Seeking to explain the sudden and dramatic change, military officials quoted by CNN conceded that the US military “did not have a good understanding of what was going on” with the high tech spy drone.
Iran also changed their story on the drone, backing off its claim that it had “shot down” the drone and now saying that it had used some sort of false GPS signal to trick the drone into believing it landed in Afghanistan when in fact it landed undamaged inside Iran.
This could be even worse for US officials, who were already concerned with the apparent lack of damage to the drone, as it would not only suggest Iran can grant access to a fully intact stealth drone to nations like Russia and China, but that the drones are also vulnerable to such tricks in the future.
Well, Duh. And this is going to be news to whom?
merry christmas iran. hope you enjoy your present
GPS signals are easily overpowered. Lightsquared recently discovered that when they tried to run their 4G broadband on spectrum that is adjacent to the L1 satellite frequencies. They blew GPS out of the water with their signal rendering it unusable where Lightsquared's 4G signal is present.
Reminds me of something I read a couple of years ago about Chinese plans to overpower the US GPS system in the event of war. The thrust of that write-up was that GPS signals use very low power and are vulnerable on account of it. It would be interesting to learn if the Iranians coordinated with the Chinese on how to manipulate GPS signals, rather than simply overpower them. If so, the Chinese are almost certainly already privy to whatever secrets the RQ-170 had.
been following and saw no reports where Iran said they shot it down.
It really doesn't matter what Iran said, even if they'd be extremely thorough, pedant even, in their official declarations or reporting. Today journalism is about overwhelming the viewer/listener/reader with the desired "point of view", the main goals are always established in advance and the rest is adjusting perception so they become natural, unavoidable outcomes. It doesn't work perfectly all the time, but the overall effect happens neverhteless, people become either disgusted or tired, and the handlers usually get what they want.
looks like Iran has some technology to sell, any bids?
Guest,
I agree with your comment. I have been following this story from the outset and nowhere have I seen comments where Iran claims to have "shot down" the drone (other than some initial comments reported in the Western media that can't be relied on). This is either shoddy reporting or intentional and, in either case, I expect MUCH better from this site.
Not very libertarian of you to delete my comment. What a joke!
[moderator’s note: Actually, there’s some kind of bug in our commenting system, and we still haven’t found/fixed it. And no, there’s nothing libertarian about deleting comments — or not deleting them. Libertarianism doesn’t require us to provide you a microphone – TLK]
The American Military, "did not have a good understanding of what was going on.”
The American Government has even less idea about what is going on. It is a Banana Republic!
http://www.dangerouscreation.com
The American Military and most of the American Government have a very good idea what' going on, because they're the ones doing the goings on. It's the American people that don't have a good understanding ab0out what's going on, and that's part of the very good idea of what's going on that the Military and Government have.
According to Iranian Press TV published 12/16/11, it was unvailed that over a non-specified period, already 4 Israeli and 3 US drones were "grounded". They will be shown to the public. Were these drones surveying only nuclear plants? Are we preparing for a war?? Well, we should give it a second thought and not be influenced by financial speculators.