Today, Iran claimed that it had began copying and reverse-engineered an American spy drone that they had captured last year. A general of the Tehran military, Gen. Amir Ali Hajizadeh, revealed information about the aircraft's operational data in order to prove that experts have taken data captured from the drone.The drone contained surveillance information of northwest Pakistan in which Osama Bin Laden was living and where he was killed.
The U.S. have acknowledged losing the drone. They also say that the drone will be hard to exploit because drones have limited intelligence values.
Furthermore, Hajizadeh has claimed that the Tehran has deciphered many codes and characters and has revealed information regarding the drone to the public.
There are concerns by the U.S. that Iran could possible reverse-engineer the drone's radar-deflecting paint of one of the optical functions which would allowed the U.S. to identify terror suspects from 10,000 feet in the air. There are also concerns that the information from the drone's database could be hacked (As the Irans have claimed). However, most of the data is encrypted.
So, what do you all think about this? Should we be overly concerned that Iran could possibly access classified information and/or could possibly sell the information they gathered to other countries? What are your thoughts on how the U.S. will respond to these claims?
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
6 comments:
Part of me feels that Iran is just bluffing. Yes, it was probably not in the US' best interest to crash and leave the plane in Pakistan, but if the US really needed to get the plane out there, they would have found a way to. There is probably some information that Iran was able to gather that the US may regret, but I do not think that there is enough for us to be worried. A lot of this murmur that is coming from Iran could be just to get attention so that countries like US will leave them alone as they have more weapons and technologies that may make them a bigger threat.
Like Dustan, I also have a feeling that Iran is bluffing, claiming to reverse-engineer the drone to appear to have a military and technological strength. If there was anything on the drone that defense officials were really concerned about, there would be some kind of countermeasures built-in. If I recall, one of the helicopters used in the assassination of Bin Laden crashed and had explosives ready to destroy any classified technology on board after being evacuated. It would be fairly simple to have some kind of self-destruct feature on an unmanned drone.
Even if Iran isn't bluffing, the US has no need to be concerned. The process of "reverse-engineering" is extremely difficult and Iranian scientists may be able to understand the mechanisms underlying our drones, but who is to say they can replicate it? As with all technology, constant research is being done and the newest and best technologies that the US can use to "defend our country" will be out before Iran has a chance to replicate our now obsolete technology. I'm sure that the US government was well aware of the risks associated with flying a drone over Iranian soil and the situation of a drone being recovered by Iran must have come up. If the US was so scared about Iran accessing our technologies, they wouldn't have flown a drone over Iran in the first place.
I also believe that Iran is bluffing, but I don't think that is the most alarming concern. If Iran decides to sell the spy drone and the accompanying information they have acquired to a country with more competent researchers and better technology, it becomes much more likely that the technology can be replicated. Although the chances of this is unlikely, it may send a message that America no longer has the upper hand in military technology. Morale has a significant role in warfare, and if some fanatics decide to attack America in a senseless fervor, then there is the imminent danger of more innocent lives being lost.
I'm just curious what types of classical information could be on this drone. If it has been flying around Iran and spotting things within its camera, then the only information on it would be things that anyone could see if they were flying in the air. Also I believe that it will very hard for Iran to decipher any codes or characters that is within the drone. The United States doesn't put code if they think it might be hacked. The only thing that could possibly be a bad thing, is that Iran replicates this drone and officially has their own drone to use against us.
I also believe its a bluff. they have had the Us drone for awhile now and im surprised they have not made their own. Plus once Iran makes their own type of drone they have to run many test on it so it will take them awhile to use it on the battlefield plus i highly doubt they will be able to make a drone better then the US drone. So i dnt think the US will have much to worry about
Post a Comment