Iran touts successful test of US drone replica

Iran touts successful test of US drone replica

TEHRAN, Iran — Iran said Monday that it has successfully tested its own version of a U.S.-made drone based on one it captured in 2011.

State TV quoted Gen. Amir Ali Hajizadeh, head of the aerospace division of the elite Revolutionary Guard, as saying the test was carried out earlier Monday.

"As we promised earlier this year, a test flight of the Iranian version of the RQ-170 was carried out and a video will be released soon," he said. Iran had displayed the drone earlier this year.

Iran has said it managed to reverse-engineer the RQ-170 Sentinel, seized in December 2011 after it entered Iranian airspace from neighboring Afghanistan, and that it's capable of launching its own production line for the unmanned aircraft.

Source

If it`s a good clone and they share it with Russia, that would mean bad news for NATO.

Russian drone technology is well behind that of NATO (I would not be surprised if Chinese and Russian engineers have helped Iran with it).

a reply to: BornAgainAlien

The RQ-170 is old tech anyway.

I really don't see the point in copying it?

Odd... They released a picture of a new drone on september 23, but it's not a copy of the RQ-170.



Iranian engineers working for the armed forces have “built the drones to carry air defence missiles”, deputy defence minister General Amir Hatami said, quoted by Fars news agency.

“The research, experimentation and testing phases have been completed,” he said.

“These new drones are capable of destroying different types of aircraft, including fighters, drones and helicopters,” he added, without giving technical specifications.

Source : english.alarabiya.net...

a reply to: BornAgainAlien

The RQ-170 is basically 30 year old tech anyways. The whole point of it was to use all old tech to keep costs down. It would be similar to saying hey we have managed to make 1972 F-15s!

a reply to: Chadwickus

Russia still used terrible drones in the Georgia War (`08), so it could mean a big leap for them.

I don`t know how big the leaps have been afterwards, so it depends on how big they were. But introduction date of 2007 is a huge leap for drones which were still at early `90 stages with them. It also gives the opportunity to develop further based on this.

a reply to: BornAgainAlien

It can't be a big leap for them, they made them in 2007, but they took tech off the shelf from the 70's.

I makes you wonder what a successful test means to an Iranian propaganda machine. I doubt they could fly it with anything other than a remote control, certainly not autonomous. They may have the airframe but they don't have the satellite and ground station tech and I doubt they can reverse engineer the software and hardware.

a reply to: TheCrowMan

I couldn`t find it right away, but I have read somewhere they claim to have extracted the software too.

Hardware they maybe could have gotten from China.

Iran is not backwards but my guess is that the US drone was handed over to China and anything that Iran has is really a gift from China for handing over the drone.

These drone won't be half as good as what the USA has but at a tenth of the cost they could be a game changer.

The real winner from this captured drone was the US military contractors that then got an excuse to scrap old models and to build new ones all thanks to US tax payers.

China will get the cost of these drones down to being less than that of a family car one day and the cost of the rockets will be less than $1000 each.

What's driving this of course is American aggression in every corner of the world so reap what you sow uncle sam and see if you can compete with China on price.

a reply to: VirusGuard

That's old news. China has been flying an RQ-170 type UAV since last year.

As for the "winners" being the US military contractors that "then got an excuse to scrap old models and build new ones" the RQ-170 was meant to be replaced from the start. Its entire purpose for existing was to fill a hole until the aircraft that was supposed to be built was ready to go. The aircraft that the Air Force was buying ran into delays in testing, and they needed something to fill the hole until it was ready. So the RQ-170 was built, using off the shelf technology, and an airframe that had previously been designed got some upgrades to the stealth coating.

What rockets? The ones that have only managed to shoot down one stealth aircraft since they were introduced?

a reply to: drneville

That one is based on an IAI Heron that crashed in Iran. Not an exact copy, but close.

IAI Heron-1

originally posted by: BornAgainAlien
a reply to: TheCrowMan

I couldn`t find it right away, but I have read somewhere they claim to have extracted the software too.

Hardware they maybe could have gotten from China.

Iranians have been in China for the past year, Shenzhen was "crawling" with them, literally speaking.

If I put a video camera and a 12 ga. shotgun in my R/C B-25, I bet I can knock that thing down.

a reply to: JIMC5499

Yeah, well ... how far can you fly that thing?

An R/C one, some of the modern ones ... can fly some 10km. The best ones, up to 50km "i've heard". But these military drones are actually flying, through a satellite link ... which the Iranians don't have yet.

However, the fact that they are able to steal the technology as they have ... has been something people like I have been warning about for decades.

The US is either a Rogue state, that is dangerous in it's arrogance and self importance ... or they are intentionally being careless, to distribute the technology to lesser knowledgable states. Like Iran, and China.

I, think it's the latter ...

a reply to: bjarneorn

It's not careless when something crashes. Planes and UAVs go down, there is no such thing as one that doesn't.

Let me guess, it's careless of the US to fly near Iran, right? But it's ok for other nations to do the same thing?

a reply to: bjarneorn
Line of sight, with a 30 minute loiter time.

originally posted by: bjarneorn--->The US is either a Rogue state, that is dangerous in it's arrogance and self importance ... or they are intentionally being careless, to distribute the technology to lesser knowledgable states. Like Iran, and China.

Uncle Sam might have built in a few hidden surprises before he let the Iranians have the drone, like a hit home function or something like that.

Some time reverse engineering can be risky business.

Well I for one think they deserve a golf clap.

a reply to: Ivar_Karlsen

The Chinese 727 is a prime example.

a reply to: Zaphod58

What rockets? The ones that have only managed to shoot down one stealth aircraft since they were introduced?

No the $1000 rockets I was talking about was for taking out ground targets with a Sony cam recorder stuck to its nose but who knows what China has up its sleeve for taking out stealth because they had gun powder for 1,000 years before anyone knew how to make it.

My friends keeps telling me about what happened when a USA stealth fighter got spotted by a 1960 rapper system at a airs show and the Americans turned around and said that the stealth was not turned on at the time.

if as you say this RQ-170 was built for little costs and not important then it sure did seem to upset a lot of people but they might make good target practice for these $1000 rockets I was talking about.