As some of you may have read in the news, the Pentagon recently announced that it had lost a reconnaissance drone in western Afghanistan due to technological difficulties. Iran claimed responsibility, stating that Iranian hackers had used jamming signals to divert the craft.
"Iran hacking into the drone is as likely as an Ayatollah standing on a mountain-top and using thought waves to bring it down," Lewis, a former Reagan administration official now with the Center for Strategic and International Studies, told Yahoo News by email Monday. "The most likely explanation is that it crashed on its own."
(Link to article: http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/envoy/cyber-experts-pentagon-skeptical-iran-brought-down-u-205358251.html;_ylt=AkExI0QkKcTCz_POW7RDd9_yWed_;_ylu=X3oDMTFkNWJ1MDBuBG1pdANCbG9nIEJvZHkEcG9zAzMEc2VjA01lZGlhQmxvZ0JvZHlBc3NlbWJseQ--;_ylg=X3oDMTNicWxwcnRmBGludGwDdXMEbGFuZwNlbi11cwRwc3RhaWQDYTAxYzU5YzAtMGQ2YS0zN2I0LTkxYjItOTc3OWFiOTdlYzQ3BHBzdGNhdANvcmlnaW5hbHN8dGhlZW52b3kEcHQDc3RvcnlwYWdlBHRlc3QD;_ylv=3#more-5901)
As embarrassing as it has been for the Pentagon to lose such a valuable piece of technology, they were further humiliated when Iran's Press TV broadcasted a tour of a very intact US spy drone. Iran, which has been complaining for a while that such drones are invasive and violate its sovereignty, now seems to be getting some revenge.
Here's a yahoo news article that give a more detailed description.
http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/envoy/iran-releases-images-downed-u-spy-drone-171144210.html
Thursday, December 8, 2011
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19 comments:
I feel the United States deserves to have their drone confiscated. If the United States were less meddlesome in foreign affairs, they would not have had their drone flying over western Afghanistan in the first place. Since the drone malfunctioned i don't think the United States should be allowed to reclaim their drone since they knew the risks of flying a high tech piece of equipment, such as a drone, in an enemies airspace.
I agree with Greg. The US did violate Iran's sovereignty in flying drones over it's airspace. It was over Iran and the Iranian government has every right to do what it wants with their confiscated drone. Attempting to reclaim the drone after violating another nation's sovereign airspace would reflect poorly on the US government, which already has a bad reputation around the world.
I agree with Greg and Joesph, Iran had every right to shoot down that US drone. I remember hearing about this on Good Morning America and they said the last time a drone was taken down, the pieces of what was left of the former drone was shown to China. I thinks it's kind of like the nuclear bomb, first the US had it then all of a sudden Russia had one. Hopefully that drone wasn't too important and China doesn't get some secrets but, that's karma for you.
I somewhat agree with the previous comments, but I think it is also important to note how frightening it is that such a large weapon simply had its "signals jammed" and was confiscated. After reading the article it seems unclear whether or not that is actually what happened, but either way it seems like the U.S. government is trying to avoid embarrassment and the Iranian government is using it as a chance to claim responsibility. All around, not a great situation to be in right now from our standpoint.
I think this is less focused on why the drone was there in the first place. Military weapons should be have a way of retrieval, especially such an integral part of the U.S. military. Especially this, if someone could analyze the drone, it would be possible for them to manufacture them or find a way to hack into them, which is even more threatening to U.S. national security.
In terms of embarrassment, I think the U.S. national government dealt with this incorrectly. If they admitted their mistake and looked for it, it would be better than what happened now. Though, I do not think they even have an actual way to retrieve it.
I would like to point out to Sammy that the done was not shot down, but was probably either hacked or experienced some kind of malfunction. To me, the Pentagon saying that a drone was lost in Iran due to technological difficulties is the same thing as admitting that they are covering up what really happened to the drone. Even if Iran wasn’t responsible for the hacking of the drone, there is a high probability that the drone was hacked or interfered electronically with by another party. The United States is definitely not the most favored country on the planet, and many people would love for the US to lose control of one of their patrol drones, even if it does not affect the United States military efforts, it sends a symbolic message to America that someone can and is willing to tamper with their hardware.
I agree with Joseph. The United States should't be whining about wanting their drone back. Because after all, we were flying a drone into their airspace without permission. A
I’ll have to disagree and say that Iran should not interfere with US drones. Some of the best surveillance work can be done using these drones not to mention they’re probably pretty expensive. Iran has no right to interfere in operations of the US whose work with the predator drones helps the rest of the world live safely. If Iran is developing chemical weapons or misusing nuclear power, then I think I’d like to know and the drone is probably the only way we could find out. I’d also question how much credit and sovereignty we should give to a nation that says they want to wipe Israel off the map, Israel being one of our closest allies.
I agree with Will's point to a certain extent.The US made the right decision in using the drone to find information about nuclear facilities. Iran's actions are very suspicious, and it is better for the US to find out beforehand than to find out the hard way with a nuclear attack. However, Iran does have a right to interfere with any hostile actions within its borders. We did violate their sovereignty, but I think it was a good decision
I agree with Will. These drones are very important and help the world, not just the United States. I would also like to point out the irony in Iran's claim. Apparently the drone was surveying western Afghanistan, and yet Iranians took it down. Iran says that the U.S. is encroaching on their sovereignty, so then technically wasn't Iran encroaching upon Afghanistan's sovereignty? Just a small thought.
Actually, the drone was conducting surveillance over Iran when it went out of control. It was operating from an airstrip in Afghanistan.
Regarding what Will said, the US does indeed have good reason to want to conduct surveillance on Iran. That doesn't give the US any right to violate Iranian security, but the US is capable of doing it anyway and will do it anyway.
The Iranian government may want to destroy Israel, but considering how the US is allied with Israel mainly
to have a steeping stone to meddle Middle Eastern affairs (and its oil) Iran has a reason to hate Israel (not that I'm saying hating another country is justified). And I'm sure that the Iranian government knows that using chemical or nuclear weapons would effectively give the US/NATO/Israel an excuse to bomb the country to submission.
I think that the US should be more careful in gathering intelligence since exposures like this indecent probably only makes more enemies.
Iran showed their power after hacking and bowling over the drone plane RQ170 safely on their border which was controlled by American CIA Team
Read More : http://www.inflatu.com/news/iran-engineer-and-cyber-army-hacked-american-drone-plane-operated-by-us-cia-attack-unsuccessful/801.html
I think Iran had every right to shoot it down but i think the us needs to do what ever it take to get back the drone. If that equipment get into the wrong hands our enemies would be able to spy on us and if that happens it would make the US look really bad
To Iran, this drone possesses technology that they may not possess yet, which may give them an advantage against other countries. But even if they have access to this new technology, they may not know how do use it, so in other words the drone would be useless; it would just be a fancy piece of machinery, that's it. What puzzles me is that the drone is still mostly intact. Since drones usually fly at high altitudes, if it is shot down, or if there is a malfunction, it will plummet, crash, and explode, and there would be little evidence stating that this burning piece of metal was once a valuable piece of technology to the United States. How this even will affect relations with the US and Iran is uncertain, but from reading more current articles about this topic, Iran does not plan to give the drone back, and is in the "final stages" of extracting data from the drone.
Derp.
I think the US dun' goofed.
I mean, given the contention in the middle east and Iran's dubious nature, I think it was mostly our fault for not making the drone foolproof/Iranproof.
While I do think we need to maintain drone flight for national and international safety reasons, I think we need better failsafes, like self-destruct mechanisms, or some means of keeping them from being misused.
As for the drone... I think it probably crashed on its own, and just landed fairly cleanly in some sand or trees or something. I mean, they'd have a hard time hacking it, and they didn't show the underside or anything, which is the side that would be primarily damaged in a plane crash (since they glide anyway).
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