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Title: Drone crash in Iran has US worried over spy secrets
Source:
[NZ Herald]
URL Source: http://www.nzherald.co.nz/world/new ... e.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10771425
Published: Dec 6, 2011
Author: Lolita C. Baldor
Post Date: 2011-12-06 21:44:04 by angK
Keywords: None
Views: 443
Comments: 28
United States military officials are concerned that Tehran may have an opportunity to acquire information about the classified surveillance drone programme after one of the stealthy aircraft crashed in Iran. A senior US official yesterday said the drone was on a mission for the CIA but that it was unclear whether the drone's mission took it over Iran or whether it strayed there accidentally because of technical malfunctions. Though the drone flight was a CIA operation, US military personnel were involved in flying the aircraft, said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the secrecy involved. On Monday, Iran's armed forces said they had brought down RQ-170 - known as the Sentinel - that violated the country's airspace along the eastern border. Nato's US-led force in neighbouring Afghanistan said Iranian authorities might have been referring to an unarmed US reconnaissance plane that went missing during a mission in western Afghanistan late last week. Ever since it was developed at Lockheed Martin Corp's famed Skunk Works facility in Palmdale, California, the Sentinel drone has been cloaked in tight secrecy by the US Government. But now the drone that the Iranian military claims to have brought down for invading its airspace might be made far more public than the Pentagon or Lockheed ever intended. Another US official with access to intelligence said that losing the Sentinel was a major security breach. The official, who was not authorised to publicly speak about the information, wouldn't say how the drone fell into Iranian hands, but confirmed that the downed drone was largely intact. "It's bad - they'll have everything" in terms of the secret technology in the aircraft, the official said. "And the Chinese or the Russians will have it too." Peter Singer, author of Wired for War, a book about robotic warfare, said it was not new to have drones downed in enemy territory, but that the RQ-170 represents the next generation of drone aircraft. "It carries a variety of systems that wouldn't be much of a benefit to Iran, but to its allies such as China and Russia, it's a potential gold mine," Singer said. Defence analyst Loren Thompson of the Virginia-based Lexington Institute doubted Iran shot down the drone or that there would be much left of it to sell. "They were designed to be silver bullets that could go places that other manned or unmanned aircraft would not be able to go," she said. "This is a high-flying unmanned aircraft that malfunctioned and then fell to earth. "It's likely to be broken up into hundreds of pieces." - AP Poster Comment: Why are they so worried if the drone is likely to be broken up into hundreds of pieces? Wishful thinking?
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Begin Trace Mode for Comment # 28.
#3. To: angK (#0)
If it landed nearly intact, perhaps "somebody" managed to hack into its controls and bring it down safely.
I think that's doubtful. Or at least, I don't think there's much to suggest that had to happen. These drones are relatively small and light, compared to manned aircraft, so an impact on the ground would be a magnitude or 3 less catastrophic. Granted even then, a split S nose dive would smash even a small RC airplane (speaking from experience... ahem...). But if it simply glided, which it's no doubt programmed to do by default in the event of loss of contact with controllers, until it hit the ground, then it may well be in reasonably good condition. If nothing else, Iran has something they could trade to Russia for some high end anti-ship or anti-sub missiles. Or maybe just a nuke bomb just to put an end to the speculation that they might build one, which might be a good way to just shut down this whole issue about them building nukes. And then everyone would leave them alone.
You too, huh? They are fun to fly, but the crashes hurt. But wouldn't it make more sense to self-destruct instead of glide if control is lost?
you'd have to know the frequency of the control receivers on the drone. you'd have to know the software well enough to tune the receivers to your frequency... which would eliminate "self destruct" commands coming in on the original frequency. you'd have to know the software well enough to disable "self destruct" programs that would destroy the drone if it went off course... but maybe that's not a feature, or maybe the drone would assume your new course was the right course. you'd have to know the software well enough to squirt in the GPS coordinates of where you wanted the plane to land, and the GPS approach data.
You'd have to know the private digital decryption key that the drone is using to decrypt all the data going to and from the drone. Hacking it is not a realistic scenario. It's not like the drone is running Windows Internet Explorer with myriads of security holes. Lockheed would do better than to miss that.
what if there are sane people with access to the data? if the thing landed "largely intact", what are we supposed to think? ...that everyboy's lying about the "intactness"? somebody fed control data to iran? the iranians hacked into the control system? divine intervention?
I think if it's intact, the Iranians are lying about shooting it down, and it's likely it just ran out of fuel and glided at a reasonably slow speed until it hit the ground. As I said before, these drones are not the same as full size manned aircraft, and their smaller size would make impact with the ground, so long as flight is about level, relatively uneventful. I think the formula for the momentum of the craft is Momentum = Mass * Speed * Speed. So if Momentum is 1/10th of a normal aircraft, and speed is only gliding.... Not much energy at impact. Sometimes things go wrong even for the bad guys. I do take exception to the premise that the PTB's and their minions will never make mistakes.
There is a great scene in the new 'The Day the Earth Stood Still' starring Keanu Reeves where drones are sent to attack the large sphere Klaatu arrived in at Central park, NYC. Gort, the robot takes radio control of them and smashes them into military assets like tanks on the perimeter of the control zone around it after destroying the launched sidewinder missiles. Drones are a relatively new technology and they will get much more sophisticated and be given many new types of missions as they evolve. I very highly recommend the book 'Wired for War' -- The robotics revolution and conflict in the 21st century by P.W. Singer. It is especially an appealing book if one has a pilot's perspective. The book's jacket review quotes: (Robert D. Kaplan, author of Imperial Grunts: The American Military on the Ground) "Singer's book is as important (very) as it is readable (highly), as much a fasinating account of new technology as it is a challenging appraisal of the strategic, political, and ethical questions that we must now face. This book needs to be widely read -- not just within the defense community, but by anyone interested in the most fundamental questionsof how our society and others will look at war itself." (Anthony Lake, former U.S. national Security Advisor and professor of diplomacy, School of Foreign Service, Georgetown University) "Lively, penetrating and wise, A warmly human (even humorous) account of robotics and other military technologies that focuses where it should: on us." (Richard Gordon, former Secretary of the Navy and director, National Semiconductor Corporation)
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#10. To: Obnoxicated (#3)
If it landed nearly intact, perhaps "somebody" managed to hack into its controls and bring it down safely.
#13. To: Pinguinite (#10)
Granted even then, a split S nose dive would smash even a small RC airplane (speaking from experience... ahem...).
#14. To: PSUSA2 (#13)
(Edited)
#18. To: lead.and.lag (#14)
you'd have to know ...
#23. To: Pinguinite (#18)
(Edited)
You'd have to know the private digital decryption key that the drone is using to decrypt all the data going to and from the drone. Hacking it is not a realistic scenario.
#26. To: lead.and.lag (#23)
if the thing landed "largely intact", what are we supposed to think? ...that everyboy's lying about the "intactness"?
#28. To: Pinguinite (#26)
"P.W. Singer has fashioned a fefinative text on the future of war around the subject of robots. In no previous book have I gotten such an intriinsic sense of what the military future will be like."
Replies to Comment # 28.