RQ-170 and Iran

[HaveBlue]

So Iran is showing off an alleged RQ-170 drone of ours that it says it captured.. there are several theories out there but what do you guys think is the real deal. US officials say it is genuine, but under what circumstances did they get it? Remarkably intact for a shoot down or crash landing...


http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-16024605

http://aviationintel.com/?p=4322

[shawn a]

Hi HaveBlue,
I went to the link you posted (the BBC one), and looked at the photo, which appears to be some kind of drawing, or model. The things which look odd are the unusually smooth and consistent finish color and sheen, and the shadow of the wings shows light coming through the gaps around the flaps and elevons.(Shouldn't those gaps be filled on a stealth aircraft? If that is the photo the iranians released, then they are clearly not showing the real wreckage of a shoot down or a crash-landing. I feel the crash-landing scenario is more plausible, since, after all, it is a stealth design. Why don't these damn things fly themselves home when control is lost?

[Webmaster]

US OIF tanks and vehicles also looked darker sand/yellow color on TV than on quality photos, add in the light in the place, and the color looks more normal. Picking an image with the lightest color, it's not that far off from the finish visible on earlier pics of the "Beast of Kandahar" seen before. The details on it, yeah I'd say real, never can be sure though.

But it would have been just as easy to let the state TV not film some details instead of creating a mockup with this many details!

"shot down by electronic attack" is what they said, so true or not, that just leaves the emergency/crash landing anyway. Gaps suggests it was not intact before, probably been put together again by the Iranians for TV.


I don't understand all the commotion over it though. Few months and Pakistan will have one too.