18 ms·

"We've finished X-Raying and scanning it, you can have it back now"

raverbashing 10y ago
Exactly this Lots of American equipment have self destruction/disablement systems for occasions like this I wonder if this drone has similar capabilities
- krona 10y ago
  I would probably fit my drones with undetectable rootkit viruses and innocuous-looking USB ports, ready to infect some unwitting engineer's pirated copy of Windows XP.
- John23832 10y ago
  Aquatic drones can't have that capability. It's pretty hard to transmit and receive radio waves underwater, so these drones are autonomous. They're given a mission, they go do it, and then they return to a spot to be manually retrieved. Apparently, while a group of drones was being retrieved, china "accidentally" snagged one. Back to the capablities though, since these drones are autonomous, you probably wouldn't know one was taken until you do a count after retrieval. Once it's gone, you might know where it is by GPS, but not who has it. Even if you can say, "Hey, it's in China", you don't know what it's immediate environment is. All of those things make self destructing a pretty dangerous/irresponsible thing to do.
  - netsharc 10y ago
    Self destruct doesn't have to mean a huge kaboom. "rm -rf /", followed by a high enough voltage to fry the chips might be enough. I wonder if it has some GPS bad zones programmed into it, if it finds itself in e.g. Chinese territory, it could do the above.
- Mathnerd314 10y ago
  It's a civilian-level drone, built "mostly" with commercial (unclassified) tech. According to the Pentagon the people picking it up weren't even military, but rather civilian contractors: http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/china-smooth-resolution-expected-us-navy-drone-issue-44252588 http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/china-smooth-r.... Although some rumors suggest the drone was in fact looking for Chinese subs.
lvs 10y ago
Umm, Captain, a couple of these solder points look very fresh.
ceejayoz 10y ago
Or, "Sorry, we dropped it. Here are the pieces."
nullnilvoid 10y ago
That is sheer, baseless, unsubstantiated accusation and finger pointing. That does not help in resolving issues.
- ceejayoz 10y ago
  It's hardly baseless, as it has many historical parallels. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Viktor_Belenko https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Viktor_Belenko https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hainan_Island_incident https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hainan_Island_incident
- nether 10y ago
  It's extremely justified, and I'd expect any country that cares for its sovereignty to do the same.
Jerry2 10y ago
US did the same thing with MiG-25 after a Russian pilot defected in 1976 [0]. Recently, after a NATO exercise in Europe, US sent an inert Hellfire missile through Cuba and Cubans confiscated it in transit. They returned it sometime after but everyone assumes that Russians/Chinese paid Cuba to have a look at it and have dissected it before Cubans sent it back. [1] [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Viktor_Belenko https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Viktor_Belenko [1] https://www.rt.com/usa/328303-cuba-missile-usa-accident/ https://www.rt.com/usa/328303-cuba-missile-usa-accident/
- dba7dba 10y ago
  Inspecting plane from defector or mis-shipped missile is different from grabbing a piece of equipment floating near a naval vessel in the middle of international water.
  - devoply 10y ago
    All is fair in love and war. What are you going to do, start a war over this? No. Well then. I guess everyone is free to steal and copy whatever they want to... as long as they have enough force to back up their moves. Just as it has always been.
- cylinder 10y ago
  Chinese presidential plane was sent to Boeing in San Antonio for maintenance. When it was returned it was found to be full of bugs (microphones not insects).
  - mistermann 10y ago
    Is this a famous ~confirmed incident?
    - hawkice 10y ago
      Not sure if the tilda is meant as a negation (unfortunately, many people also use it for "approximately", which is a near-antonym), but: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/1769642.stm http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/1769642.stm http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/northamerica/usa/1382116/China-finds-spy-bugs-in-Jiangs-Boeing-jet.html http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/northamerica/usa/1... http://articles.latimes.com/2002/jan/19/news/mn-23654 http://articles.latimes.com/2002/jan/19/news/mn-23654 It probably did happen.
megablast 10y ago
They probably built it, so why would they do that?
willstrafach 10y ago
Worth noting that it was completely unclassified, so likely did not have anything worth checking out.

Exactly this Lots of American equipment have self destruction/disablement systems for occasions like this I wonder if this drone has similar capabilities

krona 10y ago
I would probably fit my drones with undetectable rootkit viruses and innocuous-looking USB ports, ready to infect some unwitting engineer's pirated copy of Windows XP.
John23832 10y ago
Aquatic drones can't have that capability. It's pretty hard to transmit and receive radio waves underwater, so these drones are autonomous. They're given a mission, they go do it, and then they return to a spot to be manually retrieved. Apparently, while a group of drones was being retrieved, china "accidentally" snagged one. Back to the capablities though, since these drones are autonomous, you probably wouldn't know one was taken until you do a count after retrieval. Once it's gone, you might know where it is by GPS, but not who has it. Even if you can say, "Hey, it's in China", you don't know what it's immediate environment is. All of those things make self destructing a pretty dangerous/irresponsible thing to do.
- netsharc 10y ago
  Self destruct doesn't have to mean a huge kaboom. "rm -rf /", followed by a high enough voltage to fry the chips might be enough. I wonder if it has some GPS bad zones programmed into it, if it finds itself in e.g. Chinese territory, it could do the above.
Mathnerd314 10y ago
It's a civilian-level drone, built "mostly" with commercial (unclassified) tech. According to the Pentagon the people picking it up weren't even military, but rather civilian contractors: http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/china-smooth-resolution-expected-us-navy-drone-issue-44252588 http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/china-smooth-r.... Although some rumors suggest the drone was in fact looking for Chinese subs.

lvs 10y ago

Umm, Captain, a couple of these solder points look very fresh.

ceejayoz 10y ago

Or, "Sorry, we dropped it. Here are the pieces."

nullnilvoid 10y ago

That is sheer, baseless, unsubstantiated accusation and finger pointing. That does not help in resolving issues.

ceejayoz 10y ago
It's hardly baseless, as it has many historical parallels. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Viktor_Belenko https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Viktor_Belenko https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hainan_Island_incident https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hainan_Island_incident
nether 10y ago
It's extremely justified, and I'd expect any country that cares for its sovereignty to do the same.

Jerry2 10y ago

US did the same thing with MiG-25 after a Russian pilot defected in 1976 [0]. Recently, after a NATO exercise in Europe, US sent an inert Hellfire missile through Cuba and Cubans confiscated it in transit. They returned it sometime after but everyone assumes that Russians/Chinese paid Cuba to have a look at it and have dissected it before Cubans sent it back. [1] [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Viktor_Belenko https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Viktor_Belenko [1] https://www.rt.com/usa/328303-cuba-missile-usa-accident/ https://www.rt.com/usa/328303-cuba-missile-usa-accident/

dba7dba 10y ago
Inspecting plane from defector or mis-shipped missile is different from grabbing a piece of equipment floating near a naval vessel in the middle of international water.
- devoply 10y ago
  All is fair in love and war. What are you going to do, start a war over this? No. Well then. I guess everyone is free to steal and copy whatever they want to... as long as they have enough force to back up their moves. Just as it has always been.
cylinder 10y ago
Chinese presidential plane was sent to Boeing in San Antonio for maintenance. When it was returned it was found to be full of bugs (microphones not insects).
- mistermann 10y ago
  Is this a famous ~confirmed incident?
  - hawkice 10y ago
    Not sure if the tilda is meant as a negation (unfortunately, many people also use it for "approximately", which is a near-antonym), but: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/1769642.stm http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/1769642.stm http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/northamerica/usa/1382116/China-finds-spy-bugs-in-Jiangs-Boeing-jet.html http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/northamerica/usa/1... http://articles.latimes.com/2002/jan/19/news/mn-23654 http://articles.latimes.com/2002/jan/19/news/mn-23654 It probably did happen.

megablast 10y ago

They probably built it, so why would they do that?

willstrafach 10y ago

Worth noting that it was completely unclassified, so likely did not have anything worth checking out.