Iran broadcasts spyplane footage of US fleet in Gulf

The Iranian television station Al-Alam has broadcast footage claiming to be from one of its unmanned spy drones, showing US naval forces in the Persian Gulf. The one minute long aerial footage is purported to be the property of Iran's elite Revolutionary Guard.

From Breitbart.com

"A source in the Revolutionary Guard said the drone carried out its mission without US fighter pilots reaching it," the television said.

It said there were 10 such films taken by the drone which showed "more precise information and details about military equipment, foreign forces, and their activities in the Persian Gulf."

The station did not name the vessel nor did it say when the footage was shot.

The broadcast comes near the end of Iran's latest 10-day war games, "Great Prophet II", which military chiefs have said were aimed at showing off Iran's defensive prowess and testing new military hardware.

Many of you may remember a story back in late May, 2006 of a similar incident, which was reported but no pictures or footage were provided. Examples of that story can be seen at:

en.rian.ru...

and at

nyjtimes.com

It is interesting to revisit the story thread on ATS of the incident, and chuckle at all the people in the thread who claimed it to be lies. Because at this point, with actual news broadcasts of the footage, that is going to be much harder to prove. You think these are still lies, skippy?

Also I wonder what they mean by foreign forces in that context. Forces other than US forces?

I am just glad that it's not last second footage from the camera of an impending missile strike on the carrier. Because surely by now either Allah, China or Russia has seen to it that Iran has all those fancy toys too.

So if this were in an actual war could this UAV have possibly done damage to that ship or is it only for recon?


Pie

The location of our carrier groups is not classified so if the Iranian drone was without weapons and posed no threat, I don't see why it would be shot down.

I would hardly say this is a military triumph for the Islamic Republic of Iran.

PieMan, exactly what I kinda think about, what if that was a missile... How does a drone even get that close to a US carrier? The last one supposedly flew around for 25 minutes before the US caught it on radar, and scrambled F16's, at which point the drone was already safely landed at a base back in Iran.

Originally posted by TrueAmerican
PieMan, exactly what I kinda think about, what if that was a missile... How does a drone even get that close to a US carrier? The last one supposedly flew around for 25 minutes before the US caught it on radar, and scrambled F16's, at which point the drone was already safely landed at a base back in Iran.

I'm not a military expert, but I think if this was something more threating it would have been detected and destroyed much more easily. Even satellites can detect the heat from missiles.

Originally posted by djohnsto77
I'm not a military expert, but I think if this was something more threating it would have been detected and destroyed much more easily. Even satellites can detect the heat from missiles.

I hear ya dj, and I ain't no military expert either. But aren't some Iranian UAV drones equipped with missiles these days? Like these?

Ababil (Swallow) Unmanned Air Vehicle [UAV]
Iran has been attempting to develop a UAV industry, and some of its UAVs were used operationally in 1997 to shadow US Navy operations in the gulf. Iran has developed the tactical Ababil-5, a medium-range reconnaissance and surveillance UAV, the Ababil-T, a short/medium-range attack UAV, and the Ababil-B and -S. Iran recently announced the production of two new variants of its indigenously developed Ababil UAV, one of which, dubbed Ababil-S, was designed specifically for ISR operations.

Also dj, so you think it's cool for a spy plane to buzz a US carrier and not be shot down? If that was the case, then why did the US scramble F16's the minute they caught it on radar?

Well, I see a few possible options here:

1. Does the United States want to show its actual radar effectiveness by scrambling fighters to the scene, or even its response time?

2. I’m sure our Government would love an Iranian drone to strike one of our ships, perfect excuse I’d say.

3. Who knows, maybe they did manage to fly over our ENTIRE carrier battle group without getting detected… I doubt it.

lol, ok great. I see swarms of Iranian UAV's circling all over the Gulf Fleet, with ship commanders merrily laughing, playing poker on the bridge, and looking up saying "Hah Joe, there's another one! Let's shoot em a moon!" Come ON. I can't believe that the US would just sit there and let every last thing on their ships be videoed all to hell. I just ain't buyin it. :shk:

This shows a fundamental weakness should conflict break out. Iran will sure give the U.S a bloody nose if it gets that far..

Lets hope it doesn't.

Depending on the speed of the UAV, ship radar or AEW radar may have not picked it up. They are designed not to detect birds etc and thus ignore anything below a certain speed. If the UAV was slow enough and small enough (less than say an albatross in wing span) it would remain undetected quite easily. Modern technology is good but it does have it faults.

Everyones doubting the iranians.. how convenient.

Cant people understand iran is simply saying
''look we are not as backward as you believe... we have the ability to spy on your ships while they are in sea's close t us ''

This means they have the ability to hit these ships.

Good for Iran, the USA needs to give them some respect.

America might win a war, but as previously posted
Iran will put up a fight,and cost many american lives and much of the war machines.

You guys are going on how america wouldnt allow them to spy from uav's.. and it must be a setup..

yeah.. liek the USA has never been wrong before huh?

Iran displayed there missle tech not long ago,
they have nuclear research capability, jets... speed boats submarines..
but a UAV?
God never.. thats just stupid thinking.

Maybe america will be stupid enough to hit iran,
and hopefully iran will totally mess you up.
Maybe then some of you stupid americans wont be so brason in declaring how mighty and strong you guys are.

Technology is one thing, but having the will to fight an enemy in war is another.

and no one is behind the american government, or cause any more.

Its really quite irelevent as to the location of the US fleet in the Gulf, a single Sunburn Missile can wipe out a carrier in seconds. They have this unique feature that no US missile has for evading anti-missile technology, were it basically flies straight up in a verticle manner at mach 6+ and drives straight through the carrier deck from directly above. Goodnight Irene to the billion dollar Carrier and all for the cost of a few hundred thousand Roubles .

Yes those Sunburns are nice that the Iranians have now.

But i wonder how Iran woud go up against an Ohio class SSBN carrying 24 Tridents that pack 8 warheads each.

Goodnight Irene to a multi Trillion dollar country for the cost of only a few Billion.

Could this perhaps be footage from the supposed incident earlier in the year? The article says that the date the footage was taken is unknown.

Perhaps the US knew that this was only a UAV and didn't want to risk a breakout of war and let it be? Or do you think that it was totally missed?

Originally posted by doctorfungi
Could this perhaps be footage from the supposed incident earlier in the year? The article says that the date the footage was taken is unknown.

Perhaps the US knew that this was only a UAV and didn't want to risk a breakout of war and let it be? Or do you think that it was totally missed?

I wouldnt be surprised if this is just Iranian propaganda, id like to see actual footage rather than just a few pictures.

I wonder if the Drone carried any visible Iranian insignia ?

Its not out of the Question that it wasnt picked up by Radar, but if it was buzzing around an entire fleet and not spotted id be totally amazed, perhaps its some ultra compact like RC Plane size drone?

Goodnight Irene to the billion dollar Carrier LOL and you think these US carriers dont have laser weapons on board to shoot down a pathetic mach 6 missile at the SPEED OF LIGHT, i would be amazed if they didnt have them deployed on carriers just for those sort of incidents, theres a lazer system fully operational that can shoot down missiles and artillary shells multiply track and shoot and thats what is declassified now imagine the classified stuff go figure that and now put it into an Iran vs USA war and i would say byebye Iran......

also add above onto fighter planes which deff ddoes exist, and possible maybe tanks could have it too but not sure.

[edit on 12-11-2006 by blobby]

Number Cruncher

Tridents aren't they 60's Tech ? anyways mate the US wont use nukes against a country with major OIL!!! why would you potentially contaminate the life blood of your military engine for the next 50 years ? not to mention with all the tech the US has in its arsenal it still struggles to hold countries like Iraq not to mention fail to destroy some Camel Jockey's in Afghanistan. The US lost in Korea ( Hence North Korea being labelled a Rogue State ) then it lost the Vietnam War. Not to mention you wern't even in the 2nd world war till you got bombed in Pearl Harbour in 41.

There is a much bigger player in the game, call it natural selection or God take your pick but no agressor country is allowed to dominate and usually they rot from within. Be it Sumer, Egypt, Greece, Rome, France, England, Germany, Russia and maybe the USA ? without failure all great civilizations fall so dont get too cockey ok mate.

To infer Iran is incapable of having drone technology is supremely arrogant and you only have to go back to Germany in WW2 and you would see the US was an infant military power relative to it.

[edit on 12-11-2006 by mazzroth]

I hope americans do believe Iran is incapable.
IT will be all the sweeter to see the look of surprise on their faces.

Correct the US probably has tech to shoot down a missle coming toward a carrier.
But what about 30 missles?

They wont send them in one at a time..

If I was against the US Fleet..
I would prepare a launch of hundereds, if not THOUSANDS of missles...
make it a major exercies..

at dawn, on a day never expected.. absoltuley saturate them with missles...

in one fowl swoop you could obliterate the entire fleet.


And declare to the world you were simply removing the threat to your countries future...


I mean..... didnt American do that with Iraq?

Difference here is, IRaq had nothing to threaten american with,
where as america has her fleet on irans doorstep..

So pre-emptivley removing a threat that is right on your border... under US terms.. is legal!




[edit on 12-11-2006 by Agit8dChop]

Mazzroth - The point of my post is that Iran has got nothing over the US in an all out War that is fought only using technology, im not implying Iran doesnt have drones, im sure they do, and to the rest of your speech i say, whatever Maaate.

Agit - So to your way of thinking Iran removing the US fleet would be Legal, so you must agree it would be ok for Israel to launch a preemptive on Iran as well using the same logic ??

Originally posted by mazzroth
Its really quite irelevent as to the location of the US fleet in the Gulf, a single Sunburn Missile can wipe out a carrier in seconds.

Complte and utter bollox, one Sunburn cannot wipe out a carrier it only carries a 320kg warhead

They have this unique feature that no US missile has for evading anti-missile technology, were it basically flies straight up in a verticle manner at mach 6+ and drives straight through the carrier deck from directly above. Goodnight Irene to the billion dollar Carrier and all for the cost of a few hundred thousand Roubles

.

Incorrect inforamtin again, it does not dive at a speed of Mach 6 in fact it does about mach 3.

Tridents aren't they 60's Tech ? anyways mate the US wont use nukes against a country with major OIL!!! why would you potentially contaminate the life blood of your military engine for the next 50 years ? not to mention with all the tech the US has in its arsenal it still struggles to hold countries like Iraq not to mention fail to destroy some Camel Jockey's in Afghanistan. The US lost in Korea ( Hence North Korea being labelled a Rogue State ) then it lost the Vietnam War. Not to mention you wern't even in the 2nd world war till you got bombed in Pearl Harbour in 41

LOL, I couldn't stop laughing at these ridiculous statements. Someone it seems left school a little too early and has been stunted ever since.