RQ-170 SENTINEL DRONE SHOT DOWN OVER IRAN? Posted on December 5, 2011 by aviationintel.

com *UPDATESANDLINKS TO ALL OFMY LATEST COMMENTARY ON THE TOPICPOSTED AT THE BOTTOM OF THIS PAGE. PLEASE READ THROUGH IN ORDER. The RQ-170Sentinel may have recentlyfullledone of itsmost important design objectives: to be lost over enemy or semi-friendly territorywithout giving up theDoDslatest advancesin stealth technology. Losing drones is inevitable. Its afairly common occurrence to hear about MQ-1Predatorsor MQ-9Reapersbeing lost,usually do to a data link or communications issue with theground controlstation.In the past, USghter aircrafthave even been scrambledin order to shoot down the errantdrone before it venturesuncontrolledinto enemy or even friendly air space. But what exactly do you do with a drone that loses contactandis very hard to spot via radar? Althoughthe operator mayknow what area itis in, you cannot exactly vector a ghter right to it if alldatalinkingand communications have been lost. If this same drone is lost over enemy territory you cannot even send the ghters out to destroy itbecause it could start a war. So if you cannot communicate with a deep surveillance stealthdrone, such as the RQ-170, your options are very limited. Do you hope it crashed into an a mountain cliff never to be seenor heard fromagain, or do you pick up the redphone and start the damage control process?

It isknown that the RQ-170has done most of its workdeep insidePakistan, searching for high value targets (HVTs),providinglive streaming video of special operationsmissions and eyeballingthe Pakistani nuclear program and storage sites. This probable mission setwas deemedfact by the DoDsacknowledgement that the Sentinel played the central overwatch role during and leading up to Operation Neptunes Spear, otherwise known as the operation that killed Osama Bin Laden.Although the medias focus on Pakistanin relation to thestealthy dronemakes total sense,the Beast Of Kandahar, as it was once dubbed before it was publicly acknowledged by the USAF, could as easily turn west into Iranas south-east into Pakistan from its nest at Kandahar Aireld. Having the RQ-170ymissions over Iran would make total sense. In fact, when the RQ-170was originally funded and developed I am sure Pakistan and Iran were the Sentinels two customers that the Defense Department had in mind. In many ways,the RQ-170sdesign seems to be directly dictated by the region for which it was intended. The aircraft, although advanced in concept, does not appear cutting edge in terms of stealth technology, so losing one over foreign territory, although not ideal, would not compromise all of Americas latest and greatest low observable design techniques. Further, the aircraft seems to be geared mostly toward electro-optical surveillance, but this does not mean it does not incorporatea highly capable, ghter sizedradar warning receiverthat can alsoprovidehigh delity electronic support information.Because of the RQ-170sdumbed down stealth characteristics,the most advanced component on the aircraftmay bea radar warning receiver and electronic support measures sub-system similar to the F-22 Raptors ALR-94. The ALR-94ESM system, or one similar to it,utilizes a series of antennas embedded in the skin of the aircraft and is totally passive in operation, giving off no electromagnetic energy of its own. This advanced constellation of miniaturized receiving antennas, interferometers and high-powered computersallows for real-time monitoring and geolocatingof activeradio frequencyemissions within the aircrafts battle space. This would give the drone an archival function, where it records the enemies electronic order of battle for future uses andintelligence purposesand it would also greatly enhance itssurvivability by giving the operatorsnear real-time situational awareness of what types of radarsare in use as well as their precise locationwithin the RQ-170sarea of operations.The system worksin real-time bycomparing the exact radar crosssectionof the RQ-170with the active radar spheres detected around it. With this system a virtual map of the threatradars detection ranges can be produced, whichcan thenpromptreal-time changes in the aircrafts course so thatit canstay outside the detection and engagementranges of the enemy radars. In other words, no aircraft is truly invisible to all wavelengths of radar, but by knowing what radar systems are radiating a stealthy aircraft can remain invisible by staying outside the minimum detection range in relation to the aircrafts radar footprint from different angles, its distance to the radar and the threat radars knowncapabilities. It would seem that since the RQ-170 is not on the veryhigh-end of currentstealth designit would need a system

like this in order to survive over enemy airspace. The down side is that this system may be more sensitive in nature than the airframe itself in the event that the drone is lost over enemy territory. So what does a loss of an RQ-170over Iran mean? It all depends. If the aircraft was shot down that means it was detected, and howit was detectedwill be veryimportant for future Sentinel missions. Was it a stationary radar that the RQ-170got to close to? Was it a pop-up mobile system such as a SA-6 or TOR type of tracked SAM system that may have unexpectedlywent onlineclose enough to the RQ-170to detect it? There is always the possibility that an Iranian ghter shot the drone down, possibly by visually spotting it, even againstgreat odds. Aside from the how, when andwhere areas ofinterest, the most important thing would be the state of the airframe after departing from controlled ight,whether it had been caused by malfunction or by hostile action. If the RQ-170 remained fairly intact that would meana problem for the DoD, although a manageable one. Because the RQ-170was most likely constructed withexpendabilityin mind, something that had to be factored in for an aircraft that wouldy routinely over Pakistani airspace, a country who has incredibly close ties to China and their military industrial complex. So if indeed Iran shot down an RQ-170as it has claimed,orone hadcrashed while spying on Irans nuclear program or conducting other duties over their airspace, it may be a technological loss to America but not to the extent that all of our most sensitive stealth secrets would be totally compromised. In other words, the wreckage would be akin to say (with great speculation) Americas early 90s stealth technology, with a few sensitivemodern subsystems onboard. The next big questionpertains to whether wewill see wreckage shown on TV, similar to the tail of the downed stealth Blackhawk used during the Abbottobadraid, of the batwinged Sentinel? There is no doubt that if Iran does have a Sentinelcarcass it will be one heck of bargaining chip, not just with the US but with other countries such as China. Although the fruits of the such a trophy may be much less exciting than expected to whoever ends up being the highest bidder fortheIranianprize. In the end the Sentinels humbling reality may just be that bybeing lost over hostile territory, without America having a major loss of technological secrets, the expendable stealth RQ-170 may have just served its central yet most grim purpose; to provide high risk surveillance over a densely defendedairspace,in a very low risk manner http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970204770404577078160095550518.html *UPDATE- DoD says that they lostan unnameddrone while ying in Afghanistan. This is highly unlikely because the USAF would just conrmwhere and when itcrashed in Afghanistan as the USAFdoesntjust leave stealth drones, or eventhe archaic in comparison Predators,hanging out in elds withina country for which theyhave full airsovereignty over. Further, you dont need a high value stealth drone to spy on people or places in a country where there is no radar threat whatsoever to the aircraft itself!

This is what cheap and reliablePredators and other light UAVsare for.The RQ-170is strictly built to y in denied airspace. This was a very weak, unbelievableresponse from the DoD on this matter. Also the Iranians claim to have the aircraft mostly intact, which is bad news if this fact is indeed true. But once again, this author believes that the RQ-170 was designed with this very situation in mind. http://www.cnn.com/2011/12/04/world/meast/iran-drone/index.html?hpt=hp_t3 *UPDATE- The consensus seems to be that Iran DOES in fact have the RQ-170. In the Fox story below and unnamed source says that: According to a senior U.S. military source with intimate knowledge of theSentinel drone, the aircraft likely wandered into Iranian air space afterlosing contact with its handlers and is presumed to be intact since it isprogrammed to y level and nd a place to land, rather than crashing. What on earth was Lockheed thinking when they designed a secret stealth drone that will y over enemy territoryand will land intact if it goes astray? You would think they would put a charge inside of it to destroy itself or at least nosedive into the ground at high-speed if control is lost. The only thing I can think of is that if the aircraft were in fact on a test or training ight over Afghanistan, losing contact and then straying into enemy territory, it may have been without a possible destructive charge andset on a training mode that would cause it to attempt to land at a default location. Or, depending on how much articial intelligence there is onboard, it could use stored 3D maps and choose for itself a suitable recovery area in an emergency. When you are testing anything it is key to have the article survive as intact as possible so that you can x whatever went wrong. Under the current circumstances that mindset wouldhave beenvery destructive as Afghanistan is not Edwards Air Force Base or Groom Lake,and going astray inthat area of the worldcould meanyou secret stealth droneys right into your enemies hands. Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2011/12/05/us-military-sources-iran-hasmissing-us-drone/#ixzz1CDhlQn PREVIOUS & NEWER RQ-170/IRAN SAGA POSTS IN ORDER FROM OLDEST TO LATEST: http://aviationintel.com/?p=4164 http://aviationintel.com/?p=4204 http://aviationintel.com/?p=4232 http://aviationintel.com/?p=4264 http://aviationintel.com/?p=4322 http://aviationintel.com/?p=4425 http://aviationintel.com/?p=4476 http://aviationintel.com/?p=4513 http://aviationintel.com/?p=4529

Stealth Strike Fighter VS SAM Systems Picture courtesy of Air Power Australia. Please take a moment and visit their site, although some of the opinions and viewpoints differ, they run a rst class website packed full of tons of information! http:// www.ausairpower.net/ This entry was posted in News and tagged afghanistan, beast of kandahar, crashed, drone, eastern, ying wing, Intelligence, Intelligence Surveillance and Reconnaissance, Iran, ISR, kandahar, Lockheed martin, Lockmart, lost contact, nuclear, polecat, Reconnaissance, RQ-170, RQ-170 Sentinel, Sentinel, shot down, skunk works, spy, stealth drone, surveillance, UAV, usaf. Bookmark the permalink. DRAKENS! | | Gulfstream 280 Derived Ground Moving Target Indicator Radar Surveillance Plane In The Works 9 Responses to RQ-170 SENTINEL DRONE SHOT DOWN OVER IRAN? Pingback: New Updates On The Lost RQ-170 Drone Are Up Below The Original Post Linked Here | aviationintel Pingback: New Details Emerge About The Doomed RQ-170 Sentinel Drone That Crashed Within Iranian Airspace | aviationintel Pingback: RQ-170 Sentinel Drone Downed In Iran Critical Updates! | aviationintel Pingback: IRAN DISPLAYS WHAT COULD BE A RQ-170 SENTINEL DRONE, INTACT | aviationintel Pingback: IN DEPTH PHOTO ANALYSIS OF THE SUPPOSED RQ-170 SENTINEL DRONE IN IRANIAN HANDS | aviationintel Pingback: Reader Tip! RQ-170 Drone May Have Been Filmed At A Badr-Sepah Air Base | aviationintel Pingback: More Photo Evidence Conrming The Authenticity Of Irans RQ-170 Sentinel Claim Is Found | aviationintel Pingback: HOW UAVs CAN FALL 50,000+ FEET AND SURVIVE RELATIVELY INTACT | aviationintel Pingback: Did Irans Captured RQ-170 Sentinel Take A Swim? | aviationintel Source: http://aviationintel.com/?p=4164