Iranian Military Says It's Copying US Drone 350
New submitter skipkent writes "Iran's military has started to build a copy of a U.S. surveillance drone captured last year after breaking the software encryption, Iranian media reported on Sunday. General Amir Ali Hajizadeh, head of the Revolutionary Guards aerospace division, said engineers were in the final stages of decoding data from the Sentinel aircraft, which came down in December near the Afghan border, Mehr news agency reported."
Open Source (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:goodluckwiththat (Score:4, Interesting)
But not beyond China's. Iran and China are best buds, I'd imagine China is behind this, letting Iran wave their dick around since we've been harassing them endlessly for a while. This story http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/checkpoint-washington/post/probe-traces-bogus-military-parts-to-china/2011/11/07/gIQAmxglvM_blog.html, talks about counterfeit Chinese parts making their way into the weapons supply chain, with all the outsourcing we do to China, I'm sure their taking our tech and applying it elsewhere.
Re:This Conflict could have been prevented... (Score:5, Interesting)
Not inconsistent, actually. The theocrats put Khatami into power to test the waters, so to speak. Would the US (and the rest of the world) approach a pragmatist? The answer which Bush the Lesser provided was, "No". So they tossed Khatami out and put Ahmedinejad in.
Now, it really doesn't matter whether Ahmedinejad is capable of moderation or not. He is capable of playing (or actually is) a fanatic. And that's all that matters. The clerics gave moderation a chance and it failed. So they went with the hard line stance. Their position looks entirely logical. From their point of view, the USA has no consistent policy towards Iran, the Middle East, or the world, for that matter. It all depends on who we put into office every four years. And more often than not, that person is selected by the nuttiest of either of our political extremes. If I were Iran, I'd be building nukes, drones and anything else I could use to defend myself against such a manic-depressive political regime.
Dealing with the USA is akin to living with a woman who suffers from severe PMS.
Re:Go ahead. (Score:5, Interesting)
Here in Australia I heard a story about being able to buy fake Catapillar mining gear off the Chinese. Apparently you can't even tell from the serial numbers of the parts.
A couple of years back a mob got in the way of a shipment of chip card bank teller equipment from China to the UK, and inserted a few extra electronics, including WIFI. Then re-shrunk wrapped them and sent them on their way.
There is nothing that can't be reverse engineered/hijacked if it is important enough. And on the importance scale this would be right up there for both China and Iran.
Re:Why? (Score:2, Interesting)
Iran isn't a backwater.
True, other than the misogynistic, medieval-minded, mass-murdering theocratic thuggery, arm-the-suicide-bombers-who-blow-up-vegetable-markets type stuff. You're right, other than the part where their religious police will arrest you for the wrong sort of hair or beard arrangement, or where their language police have banned the word "pizza," or where they kill people for saying the wrong things, or approve death by stoning ... yup, other than that sort of stuff, it might as well be downtown San Francisco, or Paris, or London. You make a great point.
Re:goodluckwiththat (Score:3, Interesting)
Brain drains don't include everyone in a country. In fact, particularly in Iran's case, I suspect that many educated people REFUSE to come to the west because of how they've been treated their whole lives by us. And what about Iran's "regime" is any worse than recent American regimes? (I don't think I need to point to our last president, who's responsible for 100x more deaths than 9/11, while simultaneously using 9/11 as an excuse).
You're also assuming that being smart automatically gives someone the means to leave the country. They need money for that first, and that means even those prospective emigrants need to work in their own country before they can do that. And those who DO emigrate are more likely to go to China than the US, because of China's good relations, treatment, and trade with Iran relative to the west's.
And "Selfish?" If we're getting into broad generalizations, then I'd bet that those STAYING in Iran are likely to do so for less selfish reasons than those leaving it. Those leaving it are just trying to make better lives for themselves (which is understandable); those staying--with the freedom to go to richer, less barren countries--are doing so to make better lives for their neighbors, co-workers, friends, and complete strangers. But that's only assuming that someone from their perspective would have the CRAZY opinion that the giant rich country bombing them, spying on them, threatening them with trade embargoes, and actively supporting their regional rivals doesn't have their family's (or 80 million fellow Iranians') best interests at heart.
Re:Doubtful they have "reverse-engineered" anythin (Score:4, Interesting)
'Undamaged' is relative. Remember they didn't show the undercarriage in their pictures, it was all gussied up with banners. Either the Iranians have decided that the drone is female and has to be modestly dressed, or the thing crash landed / wheels up landed and has a fair bit of damage.
Re:This Conflict could have been prevented... (Score:4, Interesting)
Is this REALLY what you think? Because outside in the real world all we really see is same old same old...
Still killing Afghans and using more drones than ever to execute people who may or may not be involved in terrorism, and their families, and any pets, livestock and passers by that happen to be in the area.
Oh, and adding Australia to the very long list of countries that you have bases in. Does anyone have a military base in the US? No, well why the fuck do you have to have one in my bloody country?
Re:Release the drone.... (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:This Conflict could have been prevented... (Score:2, Interesting)
I would bet it is because your government and ours decided it would be a good idea. I am pretty sure we haven't invaded Australia ....yet.
Re:goodluckwiththat (Score:4, Interesting)
That makes a lot of sense. For the Same reason, during WW II, the US got great minds like Einstein.
However, due the incessant prattle of race baiting fascists on Fox News, and they Xenophobia promoted by Dominionist religions, we are probably LOSING a lot of great minds to countries that aren't becoming a bunch of fascist pricks.
I was ready to bail on this country if McCain/Palin were chosen as our leaders -- and I might be ready to bail if the re-elected Obama is still a Republican door mat. By any measure, this country has been SECURED up the wazoo. We have a 40 year low in crime but the police forces around the country are still gathering up drones, body armor, and pepper spray as if they had to deal with some sort of siege war.
Before November of 2008 -- a lot of laws and banks seemed to be VERY READY for the problems ahead -- and it strikes me that things like the Patriot Act and NDAA bills are all about preparing for an expected problem that someone worked really hard to create. You know, like Scott Walker needing to fire teachers because he had an economic shortfall in his state, that was about a million dollars less than the money he gave away to corporations to reward them for being in the state.
Disaster capitalists are creating the justification for their austerity measures, and anyone who is truly insightful, is already aware of where this country is headed. Perhaps I'm not that smart -- because I'm still an American. How fucking sad is that?