Iran starts cloning of American spy drone

[TomClash]

Source: RT

Iran has completed reverse-engineering of the captured US spy drone and has started building its own copy, Iranian media reports.

The Revolutionary Guard is yet to decode parts of the software the Sentinel aircraft uses, General Amir Ali Hajizadeh, who heads the force’s aerospace division, said on Sunday.

"The Americans should be aware to what extent we have infiltrated the plane," Iranian Fars news agency quoted the general as saying. "Our experts have a full understanding of its components and programs."

The Pentagon stated that the drone’s security will prevent Iranian engineers from cracking its technology.
Tehran has already copied the Sentinel – as a toy, and sent one to the US as a mocking response to America’s request to hand over the aircraft.

Iran announced capturing RQ-170 Sentinel surveillance UAV in December 2011. The US believed that the aircraft crashed in Iran’s desolate mountainous area, but apparently Iranian military managed to hack into the drone’s control system and bring it down.

Earlier this week Tehran said a number of nations approached Iran over possible sharing of military technology it may have developed through studying its drone prize. China and Russia reportedly showed the most interest.

Read more: http://rt.com/news/iran-spy-drone-copy-667/

[xchrom]

1. Du rec. Nt

[cstanleytech]

2. Arent these drones though largely built with most off the shelf parts and

technology thats decades old? If so then its kinda silly imo for them to be trumpeting their horns about "reverse engineering" anything.

[Kolesar]

5. I am skeptical. This article looks speculative...

...to the point of being hyperbolic.

[reACTIONary]

32. The source is RT, Russia Today, Kremlin funded propaganda outlet. NT

[mbperrin]

12. Bit silly for the Pentagon to claim they can't be copied as well, isn't it?

So the killing will continue to protect the silliness.

[cstanleytech]

28. They might have meant the software if it was encrypted also if its made out of

some composites it might be hard for Iran to figure out how to manufacture them on their own unless of course china and or russian provide them "assistance" in that area.

[mbperrin]

40. They might have. They also might not want me to know that it's not much more

complex than an RC plane and a surfboard composite, cause we paid a LOT a LOT a LOT for these things.

[cstanleytech]

41. Now I cant get the image out of my head that they also installed an mp3 player with the beach boys

music in it, thanks

[mbperrin]

44. Shucks, I was hoping for All Along the Watchtower! :) nt

[sofa king]

3. Enjoy those views of Iraq and Afghanistan.

I believe we've seen quite enough of the lot of them.

[Amonester]

4. And the stupid race for drones has begun...

Drones everywhere and in your backyard! Yipee!

[NBachers]

9. We must maintain Drone Superiority to prevent a Drone Gap

I'm waiting for the small advertising bumbledrones that will hover around you like flies. Swat one down and there's a huge corporate penalty to pay.

Capture one, hack back into the system, and make them stalk & harass everyone to vote Republican.

[Amonester]

15. The Mosquito Drones (TM) will inject GPS-microchips under your skin so...

Big Brother (TM) will always 'know where you've been' coming soon.

[saras]

23. Shop Vac. BTW what you describe is, in fact, being studied

[kickysnana]

6. Finders keepers law I presume. n/t

[obxhead]

7. On and on the drums of war beat.

[Rosa Luxemburg]

18. The chickenhawks are very determined

they haven't finished their axis of evil thing.

They are not going to use any more of our money for war unless it is really necessary.

[Life Long Dem]

8. What's the difference between an RC plane and a drone?

Not much really.

[Thor_MN]

27. The price.

A RC plane is a relatively cheap aircraft that you buy if you enjoy the hobby. A drone is a very expensive aircraft that you are forced to buy because the military enjoys spending your money. Otherwise, they are pretty much the same thing.

[nineteen50]

10. and

the blowback begins

[Archae]

11. Any bets as to how long it flies before crashing?

My money's on their drone crashing on takeoff.

[harun]

13. Yah, it is sooooo dificult to make remote control planes

[Flatulo]

20. Not so sure about that.

The batwing shape is inherently unstable and can't fly without hundreds of corrections per second to the aircraft's control surfaces. to do that, they'd have to crack the drone's firmware which is surely something that would be heavily encrypted.

I haven't seen this shape as an RC model. The Iranian regime has a gift for hyperbole and self-prpmoting propaganda.

[reACTIONary]

33. As someone who knows folks who make them...

...I can tell you that it certainly is hard to make them. Very difficult.

[RC]

14. Probably not.

Drones are aircraft, after all and the fundamentals of both flight and the remote control of same are well understood. The only thing "secret" here is the software controlling their autonomy.

[Archae]

17. Except the configuration of this particular drone is different.

It needs major computers just to be stable.

[ronnie624]

16. Why?

Why would Iranians be incapable of understanding, developing or copying technologies? Are their brains smaller than those of Americans?

[Flatulo]

21. No, but I would expect the drone's firmware to be heavily encrypted. Nt

[saras]

24. This has never stopped anyone else before, including grad students. Why now?

[Flatulo]

29. Not sure which incident you're referring to...

A few years ago, Iraqi resistance was able to intercept live video feed from an American drone, but that video feed was not encrypted. Hopefully we've learned from that.

Encrypted data is very hard to crack. The NSA can do it by brute force using supercomputing clusters that the Iranians can only dream about. Not because they're dumber than us (I know a lot of first rate Iranian engineers), but because our defense budget is about 1000x larger than theirs.

Then again, who knows?

[coalition_unwilling]

22. Iran (aka "Persia") has been around a fuck of a lot longer than

the U.S.A. Um, we're talking all the way back to classical Greece if not earlier. As an Islamic culture, it has existed since roughly 700 A.D., IIRC. America is just current events to Persians.

[Flatulo]

30. Not at all, but we do spend over 100 times what they do on defense.

Some things are pretty hard to do. The Iranians certainly understand how an atomic bomb works, but they are 70 years behind us because we threw 100,000 people and $20t in todays dollars at the problem.

[Amonester]

31. On what? Toilet seats?

OnEdit: Couldn't resist!

[Flatulo]

36. Best in the world. Guaranteed to not freeze your arse off.

[reACTIONary]

34. Iranians have some very good engineers and technicians....

... intelligent and well educated. But they don't have the industrial base and same level of manufacturing capability and experience as we, and other Western industrial nations do. That counts for a great deal.

Doesn't mean they won't get there eventually, however.

[jberryhill]

42. Depends on the materials

Being able to analyze the composition of some composites, and being able to manufacture them, is not the same thing.

There's nothing magic about making a remote control airplane, but making one of this particular type and capabilities is a little tricky, and not all of the tricks are made apparent by taking it apart.

[itsrobert]

19. All they have to do now is have China manufacture these

Let the Drone Wars begin.

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

25. Game of Drones?

[Duer 157099]

26. When you play the game of drones...

you win or you die

[Robb]

35. LOL. Iran couldn't even mock up the landing gear.

[got root]

37. They did a pretty good job hacking it and then landing it

I'm sure the landing gear wont give then too much trouble.

Wonder how long before we see drones from every nation dealing our version of international justice?

[Robb]

38. Whatever you say.

[hack89]

39. There is no evidence they hacked it. nt

[jberryhill]

43. If you want to believe that.

It may even come with a surprise inside.