Iranian RQ-170?

a reply to: Wrabbit2000

Agreed, China probably has the tech know how to make a Sentinel copy in the short amount of time the Iranians had this one. Not too sure the Iranians could so if this is a genuine flight worthy article, I'll bet the Chinese had something to do with it. If not then it is a nice paper mache mock-up.

a reply to: stirling

The Merlin's are cool, but have you heard the RQ170? Sounds like a Star Wars Tie fighter.

Skip to 22:57 of the embedded video:

aviationintel.com...

every time i read one of these threads i can't help but wonder and hope...did we really just give them a dud to waste their time with? what a game of cat and mouse that would be, essentially giving bogus/old tech to iran to see if they're able to replicate and deploy with any reasonable success. good way to test the waters i think

YAY we copied

Must be a proud moment for Iran

originally posted by: TritonTaranis
YAY we copied

Must be a proud moment for Iran

I'm sure it is, just as proud as they were landing that sucker.

a reply to: DarknStormy

They didn't land it, it crashed in the desert after the GPS was spoofed.

originally posted by: Zaphod58
a reply to: DarknStormy

They didn't land it, it crashed in the desert after the GPS was spoofed.

GPS spoofed? Whats that mean?

originally posted by: Zaphod58
a reply to: DarknStormy

They didn't land it, it crashed in the desert after the GPS was spoofed.

I do not think the GPS was spoofed. I would say it just had an engine failure.

a reply to: DarknStormy

It means that there was a signal sent through the GPS that told the aircraft it was over its landing area, so it tried to land, and crashed in the desert.

a reply to: Xtrozero

Engine failure I'm not sure it comes down intact. Flying wing designs tend to not glide very well most of the time.

originally posted by: Sammamishman
a reply to: stirling

The Merlin's are cool, but have you heard the RQ170? Sounds like a Star Wars Tie fighter.

Skip to 22:57 of the embedded video:

aviationintel.com...

man did you watch the rest of the video>!??!?!?!

how bout that clock?!?! wtf!

the NRO satellite thats changing position and hanging out in clusters of other communications satellites?!??! thats amazing! wow.... thanks alot i thought i was gonna get something productive done tonight.... youtube wins again!

the clock is at about the 44:40 mark. I'm digging into it and i cant find anything out there so far (Very minimal search yet) have any one here ever heard of this before?

its very simple to layer video so a different video is seen by whoever gets the original file. if this is a live feed i cant see why you couldnt layer one feed over another too?

the clock looks like one that would be on a boat to me for some reason. and that bacardi bat?! wow...

i think I've probably read to many works of fiction but that clock just got my brain running a million miles an hour. manchurian candidates, spy signals, embedded videos! lol i dont even know where to begin.

im gonna dig in a little more on that speaker i think and see what he's got floating around out in webland.

originally posted by: boomer135
Tylor rogoways websit aviationintel.com has an excellent write up of how the RQ-170 came to be with the history of the jets we know or speculate are out there. Including what zaph says which it is a filler for its big brothers development.

That is a really good read! Thanks

originally posted by: boomer135
So they have a uav that is probably at least two generations behind what we actually have flying. And I could almost bet that the US knows how to detect these RQ-170s before they even left groom lake.

They may be a couple of generations behind? but that's still one hell of a tech jump over what they have had in the past?

originally posted by: solidshot

originally posted by: boomer135
So they have a uav that is probably at least two generations behind what we actually have flying. And I could almost bet that the US knows how to detect these RQ-170s before they even left groom lake.

They may be a couple of generations behind? but that's still one hell of a tech jump over what they have had in the past?

I think like the link said, a very sad day for the Americans, it must have been a total balls up and there must have been some red faces (or backsides).

I remember when a P3 had to land in China: China Crash

The Chinese would have been all over the crypto stuff so we had to change to Link 16 (I think) - I was working on that platform in 2008, 7 years after the incident and the breach in security was still being addressed. I also worked on the Development Typhoon - whenever we sent the Crypto units around the partners either one of the team travelled with the unit or else we send it by couriers who spend each night in secure overnight compounds.

I cannot imagine what the loss of this platform may mean to all aircraft programs....

a reply to: mindseye1609

Yes, that video is VERY interesting.....

a reply to: solidshot

They had already made a leap with the F-117 materials they got from Russia, and were developing stealthy UAVs already. So it's not a huge leap from what they had, to this.

originally posted by: boomer135
So they have a uav that is probably at least two generations behind what we actually have flying.

Yet this is the UAV model that the USA chose to fly in Iranian airspace...

originally posted by: Vovin

originally posted by: boomer135
So they have a uav that is probably at least two generations behind what we actually have flying.

Yet this is the UAV model that the USA chose to fly in Iranian airspace...

Yet this is a UAV model that the USA chose to fly in Iranian airspace..

It was probably at fairly low altitude with radioisotope detectors, a vulnerable mission. That also explains the light color---in essence, the lower altitude the whiter you want to paint yourself to be least visible. So the U-2 and SR-71 are very dark grey. Most other military craft are mid-grey. Predator UAV's are whitish.

a reply to: Vovin

The RQ-170 is good for its mission. No UAV is perfect, just as no stealth is invisible.