Tuesday 6 December 2011

Perhaps the data on the drone is 'obsolete' , but ...

Via FLC

In response to this expert addition on FP:
What made the RQ-170 so cutting edge?

When it entered service a few years ago it was actually the only operational stealth drone that we had. There may well be others, but they're kept more under wraps.
(...)

So if it turns out to be true that the RQ-170 has fallen into Iranian hands, how big an intelligence coup is that for them?
I shouldn't think so. Under the skin, this is a fairly simple airplane. I doubt if there's anything radical in terms of reconnaissance equipment on board. There aren't that many examples of a huge intelligence haul of that kind coming from one particular aircraft.

'b' at MoonOfAlabama offered this:
If the drone used its own radar to "look around" Iran the recently delivered Russian Avtobaza "anti-stealth" system will likely have detected it.
The Iranians says it did not shoot the drone down but "downed" it with little damage. I think they may have actually landed it....Iran will take care to hide the drone well as the U.S. would likely try to destroy it if its location would be known. When the Chinese collected parts of a stealth F-117 stealth plane that was downed in Yugoslavia the U.S. bombed their embassy in Belgrade.

Having acquired an only slightly damaged state of the art stealth drone Iran will be able to copy a lot of its technology as well as to find new measures against such drones. There will also bee a lot of interests from other sides into this technology. We can bet that the military attaches from the Russian, Chinese, Indian, Pakistani and other embassies are already queuing up in the Iranian Defense Ministry and ready to make some very lucrative offers...."
River to Sea Uprooted Palestinian

No comments: