Iran

[Dukat]

Today there is an article in the New York Times about the iranian ammunition dumb that blew up on November 12th. Turns out it was missile testing site, and everybody calls it an accident. There are aerial pictures shown. Huge blast. Lots of room for speculations.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/05/world/middleeast/blast-leveling-base-seen-as-big-setback-to-iran-missiles.html

[DLFReporter]

Why speculate?
Things blow up on a missile testing site, that's more common than one likes to think. 
All buildings at our Rocket Engine Test Facility have only 3 stone walls. The fourth is always made out of wood in order to vent the energy of a blast. 

[Tolga<3]

Enjoy, the Americans RQ-170 the Iranians got their hands on.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-LcuQAnZ4Uw&feature=player_embedded

Here's a picture, it looks like one of the hostage videos before a dude gets his head cut off

[HappyFunBall]

There are three obvious reasons why Iran is making trouble right now:

1. They must respond to the growing pressure from the UN sanctions. Don't get me wrong I totally support the UN, however Iran must respond in some way or lose face. As a dictatorship masquerading as a democracy, losing face is something it cannot afford.

2. They are probably still concerned about the uprisings following their last sham election and the subsequent Arab spring. They will grasp at anything to distract the population, and west-bashing is pretty much second nature to that government.

3. They are doing it because they can. It is a presidential election year in the United States, this effectively prevents them from making any major move for the next 12 months. Europe can be counted upon to do nothing. China and Russia quietly support them.

 

[THeTA0123]

Here's a picture, it looks like one of the hostage videos before a dude gets his head cut off

WAVE goodbye to your secret crap!

[[ret]azreal]

I doesn't even look like a real drone. Perhaps they just build a replica and covered up the wooden supports with the flags there.

And we probably are already prototyping a new drone anyways.

[Tolga<3]

I doesn't even look like a real drone. Perhaps they just build a replica and covered up the wooden supports with the flags there.

And we probably are already prototyping a new drone anyways.

Americanz already confirmed they lost it, they say the underside took damage during the crash landing so thats why the flags and wooden supports are there. The wings were apparently taken off and then put back on too

[Kelmola]

It's a drone, operating in hostile environment (based in Afghanistan and used there too), it's assumed to fall in enemy hands anyway sooner rather than later. Probably doesn't even have anything too secret in it, the radar-deflecting shape and the most common radar-absorbent construction materials have been public knowledge for a while now - wouldn't expect anything fancy like magnetic paint or the like. In the photos, even the landing gear doors are straight-edged, not serrated (unlike in other stealth aircraft). I would even go as far as to say it isn't even proper "stealth", just "low observability".

[Butcher]

that drone reminds me of robot 1X from futurama!

[THeTA0123]

It's a drone, operating in hostile environment (based in Afghanistan and used there too), it's assumed to fall in enemy hands anyway sooner rather than later. Probably doesn't even have anything too secret in it, the radar-deflecting shape and the most common radar-absorbent construction materials have been public knowledge for a while now - wouldn't expect anything fancy like magnetic paint or the like. In the photos, even the landing gear doors are straight-edged, not serrated (unlike in other stealth aircraft). I would even go as far as to say it isn't even proper "stealth", just "low observability".

Well its america's loss of 50 million dollars

[Butcher]

not that much considering a tomahawk missile costs $830.000 and is then gone.

[MaJ.P.Bouras]

Hmmm get a Koennigsoeg or a Tomahawk ..... decisions, decisions....

[NTH]

It's a drone, operating in hostile environment (based in Afghanistan and used there too), it's assumed to fall in enemy hands anyway sooner rather than later. Probably doesn't even have anything too secret in it, the radar-deflecting shape and the most common radar-absorbent construction materials have been public knowledge for a while now - wouldn't expect anything fancy like magnetic paint or the like. In the photos, even the landing gear doors are straight-edged, not serrated (unlike in other stealth aircraft). I would even go as far as to say it isn't even proper "stealth", just "low observability".

Well its america's loss of 50 million dollars

50 million's dollar, who is claiming that? Like Kelmola said they are not going to put High Tech stuff in an environment where they know they will lose one sooner or later.
I think it was one of the prerequistes for the drone to not make it fancy smancy high tech.

[Lightning]

MQ-9 Reaper drones cost $30M a piece, so $50M for a brand new RQ-170 isn't a poor estimate, I would say.

Anyway, I read that it wasn't shot down, it was actually hacked by an Iranian "electronic warfare unit", who managed to land it with almost no damage. Seems plausible at least, considering these things would normally fly relatively high and to have shot it down, would have caused considerable damage, which is not visible on the released photographs.

[Kelmola]

Doesn't even need to be hacked, just jammed. According to sources, if connections break down, the drones go into auto-landing mode (just in case it would end up in friendly territory and could be recovered). Which would prove even more that losing one does not compromise much - if there were something top secret in them, they would probably be programmed to go into vertical dive or something like that.

$50M is still pocket money, F-35 is estimated to cost $200M per piece, so wouldn't expect nothing too fancy based on that estimate either.