Iran military downs US RQ-170 Sentinel spy drone

[Mr London 24/7]

Iran downs RQ-170.... or RQ-170 downs itself?: an example issue hinted at from 2014 (Page 11):

CAPT. DANIEL J. O’BRIEN, 30 RS, CREECH AFB NV: Capt. O’Brien demonstrated astute airmanship, CRM, and attention to detail while recovering a stricken RQ-170 aircraft that departed controlled flight in a near unrecoverable flight configuration. During flight, Capt. O’Brien noticed pitch oscillation and abnormal winds aloft indication for the aircraft altitude. As the oscillations worsened, he assessed a faulty air data system and landed the aircraft even after experiencing a rapid nose pitch down and departure from controlled flight for 10 seconds.(April 2014)

 

[Steve Pace]

Very interesting, indeed! -SP

 

[Stargazer]

This would make a lot more sense!!

 

[ouroboros]

Considering GPS spoofing is now in the realm of chinese antivirus writers doing it on their off time with a $1000 SDR connected via USB to a laptop, yeah, it can be done...

 

[Abraham Gubler]

Considering GPS spoofing is now in the realm of chinese antivirus writers doing it on their off time with a $1000 SDR connected via USB to a laptop, yeah, it can be done...

Spoof GPS as much as you like. But that isn't going to change the INS position. GPS is just used to update INS to counter drift. The continued argument that the RQ-170 was brought down via GPS spoofing is beyond ridiculous. Even if the Iranians were spoofing the GPS they would be limited to adding drift to the INS to the maximum degree possible before the nav system perceived the GPS to be faulty and ignored it. A parameter they would not know. Even if they guessed it and successfully fooled the nav system the introduced error would be so small over the flight time of the UAV as to be unlikely to deviate it enough so it would not fly back to the programmed landing field and come into range of the landing control system.

The Iran RQ-170 crashed by internal failure. Engine, fuel system, FCS, etc take your pick. It was unable to continue flight and glided to the ground for a soft crash. The Iranian govt. found it a few days later. End of freaking story.

 

[quellish]

Considering GPS spoofing is now in the realm of chinese antivirus writers doing it on their off time with a $1000 SDR connected via USB to a laptop, yeah, it can be done...

They pointed out during their talk that their techniques apply only to civilian GPS. There are good reasons for that. Military GPS is much, much more difficult to spoof or jam.


And the SDR is more like $400.

 

[Grey Havoc]

http://freebeacon.com/national-security/iran-rebuilds-arms-stolen-u-s-spy-drone/

Apparently the Simorgh is now operational, or so it is claimed.

 

[Ian33]

Bet the Iranians wish they could control the real deal.

 

[flateric]

http://freebeacon.com/national-security/iran-rebuilds-arms-stolen-u-s-spy-drone/

Apparently the Simorgh is now operational, or so it is claimed.

What? Again?
http://www.janes.com/article/45633/iranian-rq-170-flight-likely-to-have-featured-sub-scale-model

 

[Flyaway]

RQ-170 profiled by Air & Space magazine.

http://www.airspacemag.com/military-aviation/drone-staked-out-bin-ladens-neighborhood-180958482/?no-ist

 

[Flyaway]

Iran develops two new UAV types from captured RQ-170 Sentinel

http://www.janes.com/article/64262/iran-develops-two-new-uav-types-from-captured-rq-170-sentinel

 

[sienar]

Possibly a Simorgh shot down by Israel

https://www.timesofisrael.com/iranian-uav-that-entered-israeli-airspace-seems-to-be-american-stealth-knock-off/

 

[BullpupRafale]

ALCON,


Just to add some mystery to the "mock-up" debate, some interesting close-ups of the mock-up's engine intake show something that looks suspiciously like..and engine!


Now, it's not unheard of for a mock-up to have an mock-up of the engine included, IIRC, it's fairly unusual.

That is no mock-up, at least the engine as that is Iranian Toloue-4 / Toloe-4 turbojet based on Microturbo Tri-60 series.

Iran in 2020 unveiled Jahesh-700 (Jahesh means Leap) and is likely clone of FJ33 or FJ44 medium to high bypass turbofan engine.

​

Incidentally Polecat was powered by FJ44-3.

 

[Eagle2009]

Here is a decent collection of Iran's various RQ-170 based drone designs over the last 5(ish) years...