Iran Cracks US Stealth Spy Drone’s Secrets, Shows Proof

[Collossus]

The commander of the Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guards' air arm claims that the Middle Eastern nation is reverse engineering the stealthy Lockheed Martin RQ-170 unmanned aircraft that crashed inside its borders last December.

According to the Iranian Mehr "news" agency, the Guards' air chief Brigadier General Amir Ali Hajizadeh, says that the country's experts have managed to crack the RQ-170's encrypted systems.

"I am giving you four codes so the Americans understand just how far we have gone in penetrating the drone's secrets," he says, speaking on Iranian TV on 22 April.

"In October 2010, the aircraft was sent to California for some technical issues, where it was repaired and after flight tests, it was taken to Kandahar (in Afghanistan) in November 2010, when a series of technical problems still prevailed," Hajizadeh says. "In December 2010, it was sent to an airport near Los Angeles for repair of its equipment and sensors, and flight tests. The drone was then sent back to Kandahar."

If that's true, that could prove to be a damaging loss of technology. But it is probably beyond Iran's means to build a copy of the aircraft, though it has managed to successfully reverse engineer the aged 1960s vintage Northrop Grumman F-5 fighter as well as the Bell AH-1 Cobra, among other projects.

Of course, if Russian or Chinese experts got a hold of the RQ-170 wreckage, they could glean valuable insight into the construction of the aircraft. But the RQ-170 was designed in the late 1990s, so it is dated technology.

While it is unlikely Iran could have brought down the RQ-170, the US Defense Department is well aware that future adversaries could attack the vulnerable data-links that control unmanned aircraft.

In February, US Air Force intelligence chief, Lt Gen Larry James said the service wanted to make sure it has a solid grip on the technology challenges facing unmanned aircraft in a high threat environment -- to include secure communications--before embarking on next-generation unmanned aircraft project.

"We want to get our arms around all these technology challenges in an A2/AD [anti-access area denial] environment -- the comm-paths, all those things," James said at an Aviation Week conference. "So before we just jump in into a MQ-X next-generation thing, we think we need some time to sort through all those things."

Meanwhile, the US Navy is still working on its Unmanned Carrier Launched Surveillance and Strike aircraft.

One solution to the problem could be increased autonomy for future unmanned aircraft. But if those aircraft were to drop weapons, there would still have to be a man-in-the-loop, otherwise it would raise serious legal and ethical questions.

Meanwhile, Washington has not said one way or the other what caused the RQ-170 to go down, US analysts and industry officials say the unmanned reconnaissance jet likely malfunctioned. It apparently was not equipped with a self-destruct system and was prominently displayed on Iranian TV after it crashed--mostly intact from all appearances.

The aircraft was reportedly performing surveillance missions of various nuclear sites inside Iran at the time of the incident.

Iran, of course, claims to have downed the RQ-170 with either a cyber or electronic attack, but US sources say that's extremely improbable. But future adversaries will likely have genuine capabilities to disrupt communications or hack into a UAV's control systems.




http://www.flightglobal.com/blogs/the-d ... onary.html

[Simon_Jester]

So, the article says the "showed proof;" is this proof? I'm not sure what to make of it because it would be pretty easy to bullshit.

[HMS Conqueror]

Surveillance drones don't kill anyone. They are reconnoitring the nuclear sites you think don't exist.

[HMS Conqueror]

A right that surveillance by unarmed drones does not infringe.

[Scottish Ninja]

A right that surveillance by unarmed drones does not infringe.

No; that would be the right of nations to control their own airspace.

[Julhelm]

But it is probably beyond Iran's means to build a copy of the aircraft

Yeah, they said that about the B-29 too back in the day. And see how well that turned out.

[HMS Conqueror]

A right that surveillance by unarmed drones does not infringe.

No; that would be the right of nations to control their own airspace.

Perhaps, but it's one of these balancing acts, because they don't have a right to develop nuclear weapons. If I were a magistrate I would issue a search warrant against Iran.

[Stark]

Misuse and misunderstanding of the concept of realpolitik. :v

[HMS Conqueror]

They're not developing nuclear weapons.

Then they have nothing to fear!

BTW, there is a country in the Middle East that has not signed the NPT

Then whatever unknown country you might be referring to does have a right to develop nuclear weapons. Countries are under no obligation to sign the NPT.

[Zinegata]

If they counter the drones, America's bloodlust will just find another way to be quenched.

We have to stand up for the weak and stop the killings on our end. Tell King Obama, tell your congressman and tell your senators that America needs to STOP killing people. It is both evil on its own, and making the terrorism problem worse.

Uh, right. And apparently shooting your own people back in '09 is not bloodlust by King Ahmadinejad.

All you're demonstrating isn't your understanding of realpolitik, just your blatant double standards.

[DudeGuyMan]

Once something like this is put into service, having someone you don't like get their hands on one is an eventual certainty. So... meh, whatever. At least it took over a decade.

[weemadando]

They're not developing nuclear weapons.

Then they have nothing to fear!

Just like Iraq right?

"STOP DEVELOPING WMDS FOR TERRORISTS!"

"We're not developing WMDs. Nor are we involved with terrorism, except in fighting it in our region."

"LIES! SHOW US YOUR WMDS OR WE'LL KILL EVERY TERRORIST LOVING LAST ONE OF YOU!"

"Honestly, we don't have WMDs, the UN can verify that, they've been all up in our business for a decade."

"FUCK YOU! WE HAVE PROOF. WE JUST NEED TO INVADE TO GET IT."

I'll be honest, if I lived in the Middle East , America would scare the shit out of me, because those fuckers are clearly crazy and just don't give a fuck.

[Bakustra]

They're not developing nuclear weapons.

Then they have nothing to fear!

I love your fascism, quite apart from the fact that this did nothing to help Iraq or Afghanistan when they were threatened with American invasions.

Uh, right. And apparently shooting your own people back in '09 is not bloodlust by King Ahmadinejad.

All you're demonstrating isn't your understanding of realpolitik, just your blatant double standards.

Iran has never claimed to be the leader of the free world, the arsenal of democracy, the nation making the world safe for democracy, or any of the other high-minded things the US has claimed. In addition, Iran is a much poorer and less urbanized country than the USA, with much less political power. A "double standard" is the only reasonable way to approach the situation, as the two nations cannot be compared on the same grounds and get sensical results. (PS: Let me know when the Iranian government kills a million people and pretends that they don't matter at all, spends decades sulking over a lost war, etc. and then maybe you'll have something closer to a reasonable point).

[Zinegata]

Oh, look, the New Testingtan crowd is coming to protect their King. Right on schedule. [/sacracm]

Tell me, Bakustra & Destructionator XIII, how do you again go from discussing Iran apparently cracking a US Spy Drone's secrets, to whining about how evil America is?

Oh, right, Bakustra does this by claiming that only the US is evil because they're the only country who uses propaganda and rhetoric. Nobody else uses rhetoric! Because when the Iranian president says they should wipe Israel off the map, that's not evil! That's not propaganda or rhetoric! That's being Iran's president being such a wonderful human being for advocating genocide.[/sarcasm]

Oh, and look at the genius of Destructionator XIII, saying "the scale is different!". A crime is a crime. You say Obama should go to jail? Then Mahmoud "I don't believe in the Holocaust" Ahmadinejad should go to jail too, because killing 100 people is still a crime.[/serious]

So thank you both for further demonstrating your blatant double standards, which is the only reason why this thread has turned from discussion of Iran's ability to crack US encryption to more of the same old and uninteresting anti-US blabber.

-----

Anyway, back to topic, and the question I wanted to ask to the tech guys:

I recall that Iran claimed that they brought down the drone a couple of months ago by doing some kind of hacking or EW jamming (and it wasn't an accident). Could this further claim lend further credence to that?

I'm a little doubtful that they actually managed to decode heavy encryption since everything he quoted just looks like general flight log data, but just how "buried" is this kind of information in the drone's systems?

[Block]

I'm a little doubtful that the information they claim to have would be stored in the drone. Usually maintainence logs and things of that manner are kept on the ground, not in the aircraft itself.

[Zinegata]

I'm a little doubtful that the information they claim to have would be stored in the drone. Usually maintainence logs and things of that manner are kept on the ground, not in the aircraft itself.

Well, either it was on the aircraft or the Iranians are making things up, because it does sound like maintenance logs of some sort:

In October 2010, the aircraft was sent to California for some technical issues, where it was repaired and after flight tests, it was taken to Kandahar (in Afghanistan) in November 2010, when a series of technical problems still prevailed," Hajizadeh says. "In December 2010, it was sent to an airport near Los Angeles for repair of its equipment and sensors, and flight tests. The drone was then sent back to Kandahar."

Or maybe they're flight logs?

[Stark]

Don't blame other people for the article. It is all over the danger of Iran and how at the same one they are useless chumps who couldn't succeed it their mother wrote them a note. this is pretty textbook behaviour, even without ludicrous replies like 'US can spy anywhere lol' and 'the innocent have nothing to fear from the US', both of which are pretty great.

[Bakustra]

Oh, look, the New Testingtan crowd is coming to protect their King. Right on schedule. [/sacracm]

Tell me, Bakustra & Destructionator XIII, how do you again go from discussing Iran apparently cracking a US Spy Drone's secrets, to whining about how evil America is?

Oh, right, Bakustra does this by claiming that only the US is evil because they're the only country who uses propaganda and rhetoric. Nobody else uses rhetoric! Because when the Iranian president says they should wipe Israel off the map, that's not evil! That's not propaganda or rhetoric! That's being Iran's president being such a wonderful human being for advocating genocide.[/sarcasm]

Argumentum ad hominem, motherfucker (literally, you sick asshole, don't think I haven't seen the tapes). Address my points instead of declaring that my associations are of greater interest than what I am saying. Oh, wait, your tiny, incest-consumed remnants of a brain can't quite grasp something as simple as "the differences between how the US presents itself and how Iran presents itself means that the two should be judged differently in order to get results that make sense."

Oh, and look at the genius of Destructionator XIII, saying "the scale is different!". A crime is a crime. You say Obama should go to jail? Then Mahmoud "I don't believe in the Holocaust" Ahmadinejad should go to jail too, because killing 100 people is still a crime.[/serious]

Yes, he probably should, but that doesn't mean that he's equally bad (even under your jackass arguments about "double standards", born from feverishly sucking at the mighty, bloated tit of American imperialism) unless you wish to show your faith to this numbskull argument by letting me break all of your limbs to test whether it's really equal to having a stubbed toe (a rough example of the difference in scale here).

Uh, didn't you hear that New Testingstan people aren't welcome in this thread because Destructionator is posting in it? I mean, we might be welcome if we disagree with him, but I don't want to put mighty Zinegata, defender of all that is pure, to the test.

[Alkaloid]

Its possible they are just extrapolating from what the can get from it. They claimed to bring it down by futzing with the GPS, and if they could do that its not impossible they could check it out and find out where it's been. That and the installation dates on any new software could add up to this with a bit of guesswork.

The more interesting question is why? This just seems to be pointlessly yanking the US governments chain, and I can't see any benefit in that for Iran.

[SirNitram]

Its possible they are just extrapolating from what the can get from it. They claimed to bring it down by futzing with the GPS, and if they could do that its not impossible they could check it out and find out where it's been. That and the installation dates on any new software could add up to this with a bit of guesswork.

The more interesting question is why? This just seems to be pointlessly yanking the US governments chain, and I can't see any benefit in that for Iran.

The biggest reason I can think of is strutting to their own citizens. The US is not well liked, and Iran gets to parade around how they cracked some of the Empire's greatest technology. They might never be able to access more than a flight recorder and it's software, but that's enough for quite the propaganda op.

[Aaron MkII]

Don't blame other people for the article. It is all over the danger of Iran and how at the same one they are useless chumps who couldn't succeed it their mother wrote them a note. this is pretty textbook behaviour, even without ludicrous replies like 'US can spy anywhere lol' and 'the innocent have nothing to fear from the US', both of which are pretty great.

Man, anyone who thinks adr is New Testingstan's king, needs his head examined. He gets shit all the time for being hopelessly naive.

I do like the "if you are innocent, why have you been charged comrade" stuff floating around in the Iran threads though, takes me back to the good ole days of the Cold War.

[Zinegata]

It is all over the danger of Iran

Last post dealing with useless natter:

Read the article again. It seriously does not talk about the dangers of Iran, and does not comment on the political situation. Probably because it's a technology article. It's the Flight Global blog, not Fox News.

So complaining it glosses over the issue of the US spying on Iran and then claiming the article has become a chest-thumping flag-waving AMERICA IS AWESOME article that deserves all of this "AMERICA IS EVIL" natter is just asinine.

Also, Bakustra, go complain to a mod if you think I didn't address your point. Again, you claim America deserves "special treatment" because of its rhetoric and propaganda. I have demonstrated this is a double standard because Iran's President engages in rhetoric and propaganda too, such as its rhetoric of wanting to wipe Israel off the map to drum up support among Palestinians.

Claiming it's not the same is just you grasping at straws. Everyone engages in "My country is the best!" to one extent or another. Some people just do it with more class than "I deny the Holocaust!"

Also, regarding Testingstan: Note the sarcasm on "King" DXIII. But I will only note that Stark, Bakustra, D XIII, Aaron Mk II, and Weedomando are all very active on NT, and 4 of them posted even before I mentioned it. So again, thanks for continually proving my point

[Zinegata]

Its possible they are just extrapolating from what the can get from it. They claimed to bring it down by futzing with the GPS, and if they could do that its not impossible they could check it out and find out where it's been. That and the installation dates on any new software could add up to this with a bit of guesswork.

The more interesting question is why? This just seems to be pointlessly yanking the US governments chain, and I can't see any benefit in that for Iran.

The biggest reason I can think of is strutting to their own citizens. The US is not well liked, and Iran gets to parade around how they cracked some of the Empire's greatest technology. They might never be able to access more than a flight recorder and it's software, but that's enough for quite the propaganda op.

Quite possible, but the specificity of the data collected implies they got something. Hence I wanted to ask the tech guys if they know how "buried" this data is in the system.

[Bakustra]

So, basically, Zinegata, you're admitting that the only thing that motivates you is fear of punishment. Well, I'm afraid that you've found me out. I am simply not enough of a bastard to threaten you into behaving like a simulacrum of a decent human being. I guess that you'll just have to find a dominant partner somewhere else, and no, I won't pityfuck you.

[Zinegata]

Dr. Ahmadinejad never actually said that. It was a translation error

...

What he actually said was quoting Ayatollah Khomeini, saying something more like "the regime will vanish from history", and compared it to the Shah's regime and the USSR.

Oh, okay. Correction accepted.

Still pretty much just rhetoric to drum up support among Palestinians though, and still useless double standard natter over a tech article.

Also, can you tell Bakustra to stop projecting his desire for my hot body? Do it over in NT where less people can see it at least?