Iranian Islamic Republic News Agency has displayed an image of a stealth UAV with news item of Iranian forces shooting down the US RQ-170 Sentinel drone.
The credibility of Iranian version of the news is somewhat damaged as image displayed by the Islamic Republic News Agency (IRNA) is of the British Raven delta-wing UAV technology demonstrator for the Taranis unmanned combat air vehicle program.
Images of the wreckage of the RQ-170 Sentinel Stealth Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) which was shot down by the Iranian military can easily put an end to any doubts regarding the Iranian claim. So far no such image has been displayed but we will have to wait and see if Iranian military officials will like to have photo section with their catch.
The second question is regarding the Iranian claim that "The spy drone, which has been downed with little damage, was seized by the Iranian armed forces."
It seems highly unlikely that a drone which was manufactured with the extensive use of composite materials was shot down and it suffered little damage. Can lack of damage to the downed drone indicate that RQ-170 Sentinel wasn't shot down by using fighter jets or ground-based air defense systems and Iranian cyber warfare unit was responsible for the crash or its just that operators of the RQ-170 Sentinel drone lost control due to some technical failure and it crashed after it ran out of fuel?
Iran Displays US RQ-170 Sentinel Stealth Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV)
Missing RQ-170 Sentinel Stealth Drone Was On CIA Mission
Iran Displays US RQ-170 Sentinel Stealth Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV)
Missing RQ-170 Sentinel Stealth Drone Was On CIA Mission
What if it lost its data link and then went into Iranian airspace then it just ran out of fuel and glided to a crash landing? the one thing that would make me skeptical of my own thought here is that with those control surfaces you would need power to run the computers to control the ailerons or that thing would just flop to the ground and then be found in a heavily damaged condition.
ReplyDeleteWild Bill
A very good observation Bill.
ReplyDeleteI think UAV crash makes more sense than a shot down if are to believe that UAV has suffered "little damage" as claimed by the Iranian side.
I believe that these highly advance UAVs may have some sort of backup Power to keep the flight computers running (just like their manned counterparts) in case of a engine failure and it had to be restarted.
The Predator UAV can be programmed to automatically return to base if the datalink is lost. Such a system would make US's life much more easier , especially knowing that only other option is to shot the UAV down by using USAF fighter jets
ReplyDeleteJust another great example of the bsng-up stellar job the boys (girls) over at the ISAF are doing!
ReplyDelete