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Iran says it downed U.S. stealth drone; Pentagon acknowledges aircraft downing - The Washington Post

The Iranian government has not released any pictures of the recovered aircraft, which they said was downed by defense forces after it flew across the border and into the country's airspace. An unnamed Iranian defense official said in one report that a cyber­attack caused the drone to crash.

U.S. officials cast doubt on this and other Iranian assertions. "We have no indication that it was brought down by hostile fire," said a senior Pentagon official, speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive surveillance activity.

So it was not shot down but brought down by cyberattack... Someone might have predicted that...

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by A swedish kind of death on Thu Dec 8th, 2011 at 07:37:03 AM EST
I wouldn't necessarily buy that the Iranians didn't shoot it down. As the War Nerd quibbed about the downed F15E in Libya:

If [the DoD] had their way there'd be no aces in the history of air combat. Baron von Richthofen would just be this German guy who happened to be around a lot of the time when "equipment malfunctions" happened. But it's funny how those malfunctions seem to happen in places where the skies are full of those cool tracer tracks,

- Jake

Friends come and go. Enemies accumulate.

by JakeS (JangoSierra 'at' gmail 'dot' com) on Fri Dec 9th, 2011 at 06:03:56 AM EST
[ Parent ]
Could be.

But now there is video out, which I found over at Moon of Alabama

Here Is The Drone

I am certainly no expert, and they are hiding the bottom of the drone, but I would have thought that it would be much more broken if it had been shot down.

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by A swedish kind of death on Sun Dec 11th, 2011 at 01:28:53 PM EST
[ Parent ]
Agree it wasn't shot down but hijacked by cyberattack.  And it didn't crash but was landed, although there may be damage to the bottom of the airframe.

Just gotta laugh.  One half of doing stuff is knowing it can be done the other half is knowing how to do it.  Appears the Iranians have solved both in one fell swoop.  

Just gotta laugh.  


She believed in nothing; only her skepticism kept her from being an atheist. -- Jean-Paul Sartre

by ATinNM on Sun Dec 11th, 2011 at 01:46:47 PM EST
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