Iran captures a US Drone

Mazulu

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2011...sing-us-drone/

Foxnews reported that Iran captured a US drone. I'm not sure how much benefit the Iranians can get from a drone. They might be able to download its firmware/software; I doubt they could understand the code or do anything with it.

The good news is that the drone is demonstrating its original intent: to protect our soldiers from enemy capture. If an American pilot had been captured, it would have been a political and national nightmare. But a drone? Oh shucks!

Pengwuino

They will send in more drones to rescue it, I'm sure. If not, a few bombs might "get lost" and find their way to wherever they try to take it.

Proton Soup

how much they get out of it may depend on things like how much commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) technology was used. but at the least, they should be able to figure out what frequencies one might want to jam. if it's encrypted, then it might be difficult to monitor surveillance data from one.

as for the stealth tech, china is known for paying good money to get its hands on such. both in serbia, and the helicopter in pakistan.

MarcoD

If they did their work right, it's pretty much impossible -without some very advanced tech- to get at the firmware, and jamming is pretty difficult considering that they probably use some spread spectrum technique. I would imagine DOD stuff to be pretty robust.

Then again, maybe the copper lines for downloading the firmware are open on the circuitry, you never know.

Vanadium 50

Aren't they afraid a flock of its little drone-y friends might come in looking for it?

Proton Soup

if they had enough sense to put it in a metal box (and i suspect iranians are smart enough to do so), it would be pretty difficult to track.

but probably the radio failed, otherwise you'd think they'd have bombed it before it got too far out of range. otoh, if it's been released into the wild intentionally, then the tech must be nothing special.

Mazulu

You would think that the DoD thought long and hard about what information would be available from a captured drone. Apparently spread spectrum technology is freely available.

http://parts.digikey.com/1/parts/157...52mi-01lf.html

I bet Iran doesn't get any useful information from the drone. I bet the engineers planned for this inevitability. They might have even hidden a computer virus on the drone processor/firmware so that if anyone tried to download its harddrive, the virus attacks. Of course I'm just speculating a little.

Proton Soup

http://www.businessinsider.com/meet-...killer-2011-12

MarcoD

I guess nothing would solve the problem better than a few kilograms of plastic explosives in case the drone loses contact and knows it's going to crash. Not sure they did that, but it would stand to reason.

Andre

Take a gps and an autopilot and you're almost done building a drone. But its capture also exposes the weakness of UAV's. They are defenseless. They are expendable, because it won't affect the life of a pilot? Maybe, but how many can you expend and can they do their job before they are lost in a bit more hostile environment?

AlephZero

Apparently, they didn't. Or else the plastic explosive also failed.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-16098562

MarcoD

I am not a physicist but is it possible to disable it with an electromagnetic pulse, possibly beamed? That would explain the failure of an hypothetical self-destruct mechanism.

(Personally, I expect the thing just fell from the air because of a short-circuit.)

Borek

Designing an EMP resistant detonation mechanism shouldn't be that hard. I could probably build one using my old mechanical clock - just combine it with electronics that doesn't allow explosion as long as it works.

Not that I would like to be close to such a contraption.

Greg Bernhardt

Looking at the video it appears to be in perfect condition. How could that be so?
http://www.cnn.com/2011/12/08/world/...html?hpt=hp_t1

AlephZero

The report suggests they may have electronically hijacked it and done a controlled landing. In any case, I would guess UAVs are built to survive rough landings, and make a best shot at landing shiny side up with no control inputs and no engine power.

If you are going to crash land, a sandy desert is as good a place to do it as any.

MarcoD

Completely unlikely unless the DoD employs complete engineering idiots, which they don't, or some high-tech was stolen, which is very unlikely too, or an Iranian spy -or someone who developed moral objections- was installed in the control room, which is unlikely too.

I say either a shortage in the circuits, an EMP blast, or an operator who mistakenly thought it was best to land the drone 'safely' for whatever reason. Or just a good old-fashioned US joke on the Iranians.

Bobbywhy

The facts behind these drone photos are impossible for the public to know. We can only speculate. The drone looks like it is in perfect condition...not crashed or shot down. As for Marco's suggestion that it may be a "good old-fashioned joke" seems to me quite plausable. The US "loss" may be a trap for the Iranians. Stay tuned.