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As a non-American I see it differently - the US illegally flew an aircraft in another country's sovereign airspace, spying on them. I don't want anyone doing th

by zik 12y ago

As a non-American I see it differently - the US illegally flew an aircraft in another country's sovereign airspace, spying on them. I don't want anyone doing this over my country (Australia) - but no matter which country it's done to it's illegal and wrong.

mpyne 12y ago
Actually it was, in this case, probably at a standoff distance and hijacked remotely by Iran (perhaps by local GPS jamming) which, as a reminder, borders Afghanistan, Pakistan and the Persian Gulf. There's no good reason to send a drone into Iranian airspace in the first place when you have things like NRO's Keyhole satellites to get imagery for you; even if there was a bigger upside, Iran actually has a good set of military radars so a political situation could easily be expected (not to mention something worse, like this).
- jacquesm 12y ago
  That sounds a lot less plausible than that they captured it over their own territory. You're essentially implying the Iranians can jam local GPS, then capture US drones at will and pilot them to their own territory during the first attempt without the US being able to do much about it. That's not a realistic picture. Much more likely that they set up a bunch of jammers/transmitters over their own territory and waited for a drone to get within the trap, then to bring it down while jamming the US control signals and GPS at the same time. After all, if they could control them that well then the best use they would have of this tech would be to embarrass the United States by sending US drones into high value targets abroad. That would do a lot more damage. If there are no good reasons to send drones into Iranian airspace because of Keyholes and so on then those reasons apply just as strongly to Afghanistan, Pakistan and the Persian Gulf. Clearly there are reasons to deploy drones and some of those reasons might apply to Iran.
  - mpyne 12y ago
    > You're essentially implying the Iranians can jam local GPS. Wait, do you think this is difficult? This is old hat, especially if Iran were able to engage the Chinese. Either way, that's only one possibility, you could also probably simply overpower the UAV's receiver with your own command stream if you could figure out the protocol (and if it was unencrypted). This isn't to say it's impossible the UAV was over Iran but that would indicate a low opinion of Iranian skill, which is not the opinion held in the U.S. military at this point.
- Htsthbjig 12y ago
  "There's no good reason to send a drone into Iranian airspace in the first place when you have things like NRO's Keyhole satellites to get imagery for you" There are LOTS of reasons to send drones to other countries airspace. Satellites have lots of constraints, they fly at a given time over an specific region, and very high, you cant make them stationary like drones(unless the country is in the equator, or you you use very oblique angles that make you lose resolution). Drones are thousand of times more flexible, and they fly way lower than a satellite.

by zik 12y ago

mpyne 12y ago

Actually it was, in this case, probably at a standoff distance and hijacked remotely by Iran (perhaps by local GPS jamming) which, as a reminder, borders Afghanistan, Pakistan and the Persian Gulf. There's no good reason to send a drone into Iranian airspace in the first place when you have things like NRO's Keyhole satellites to get imagery for you; even if there was a bigger upside, Iran actually has a good set of military radars so a political situation could easily be expected (not to mention something worse, like this).

jacquesm 12y ago
That sounds a lot less plausible than that they captured it over their own territory. You're essentially implying the Iranians can jam local GPS, then capture US drones at will and pilot them to their own territory during the first attempt without the US being able to do much about it. That's not a realistic picture. Much more likely that they set up a bunch of jammers/transmitters over their own territory and waited for a drone to get within the trap, then to bring it down while jamming the US control signals and GPS at the same time. After all, if they could control them that well then the best use they would have of this tech would be to embarrass the United States by sending US drones into high value targets abroad. That would do a lot more damage. If there are no good reasons to send drones into Iranian airspace because of Keyholes and so on then those reasons apply just as strongly to Afghanistan, Pakistan and the Persian Gulf. Clearly there are reasons to deploy drones and some of those reasons might apply to Iran.
- mpyne 12y ago
  > You're essentially implying the Iranians can jam local GPS. Wait, do you think this is difficult? This is old hat, especially if Iran were able to engage the Chinese. Either way, that's only one possibility, you could also probably simply overpower the UAV's receiver with your own command stream if you could figure out the protocol (and if it was unencrypted). This isn't to say it's impossible the UAV was over Iran but that would indicate a low opinion of Iranian skill, which is not the opinion held in the U.S. military at this point.
Htsthbjig 12y ago
"There's no good reason to send a drone into Iranian airspace in the first place when you have things like NRO's Keyhole satellites to get imagery for you" There are LOTS of reasons to send drones to other countries airspace. Satellites have lots of constraints, they fly at a given time over an specific region, and very high, you cant make them stationary like drones(unless the country is in the equator, or you you use very oblique angles that make you lose resolution). Drones are thousand of times more flexible, and they fly way lower than a satellite.