Iran claims to have downed a US UAV

originally posted by: Zaphod58
a reply to: blackbird9393

The IRGC claims it entered Iranian airspace. If it did, it most like had a GPS issue that took it off course.

The U.S. Navy’s MQ-4C drone, which has the same wingspan as a Boeing 737, was over international airspace at the time and about 17 miles from Iran, the source said.

Source: www.foxnews.com...

a reply to: 5StarOracle

No, but errors do happen. They're in a region where spoofing has happened multiple times, leading to several lost UAVs. They're not going to deliberately fly any of the -4 family into Iranian airspace deliberately. They're far too valuable to lose one being that stupid.

originally posted by: carewemust
a reply to: blackbird9393

The Military Times reported last week that Iran downed the drone just before planting the bombs on the hull of those 2 oil tanker ships. They didn't want it to see them performing the deed.

It was Iran Rebels who shot down a U.S. Reaper drone, on June 6th, says Central Command.
Source: breakingdefense.com...

Did they actually shoot it down or attempt to?

I read that they fired a MANPAD but it missed

a reply to: carewemust

a reply to: blackbird9393

That was a more recent incident. They sent a Reaper to monitor the ships and saw a boat nearby, and the Reaper was shot at and missed. The Houthi shootdown was June 6th, on the 13th another one was shot at and missed.

US confirms Iranian missile has shot down drone www.bbc.co.uk...

Thanks for clarifying.

On that basis then they see drones as fair game

a reply to: Zaphod58

originally posted by: Zaphod58
a reply to: 5StarOracle

No, but errors do happen. They're in a region where spoofing has happened multiple times, leading to several lost UAVs. They're not going to deliberately fly any of the -4 family into Iranian airspace deliberately. They're far too valuable to lose one being that stupid.

Oh I don't know....

What's one drone compared to the billions to be made by the MIC if one drone "lost" can further an armed response?

It's not improbable, and its frankly naive to think its not been proposed as an "option".

Yes, that's what I'm saying....it's a conspiracy website for pete's sake.

Although lately, it has become merely a place to argue about who is more right or wrong.

a reply to: EternalShadow

Then they could use a Reaper. A Global Hawk is considered a strategic level asset, which means it's incredibly valuable. Far too valuable to use to create an incident. That would be like letting a B-52 get shot down, when you could easily use a C-12.

originally posted by: xuenchen
TPTB doing all they can to start a "WAR !!"

Rumors and Speculation abound 😧

Sure why not, they have large numbers of soldiers willing to die for whatever cause they choose, right now morale is high especially among American troops.

So it seems certain that Iran has deliberately destroyed a valuable US asset. The BBC are reporting that it was a US Navy MQ-4C Triton.

Is it time to take out the missile battery that fired it, and possibly one or two others? Seems a fair and proportional response.

??????? why ….
couse of an us failure?a reply to: Moley

a reply to: ressiv

perhaps a failure of the drone to protect itself while in international airspace?

I’m reading that this was a secret deployment of the Triton. Since it’s first overseas is scheduled to be Guam.

www.thedrive.com...

Reportedly shot down by the Iranian RAAD thunder SAM system. Based on the Russian SA-11 BUK

They are rumored to have refit their own version of the RQ-170 they shot down, with armaments.

If that's the case, they have something a bit more advanced than the pic posted in this thread.

a reply to: Archivalist

Heaven forbid the Iranians protect their territory from the US.

Americans sound more like the Israelis by the day.... Golan Trump Heights indeed!

I guess I'm missing something about UAV's...

An MQ4C UAV costs roughly $180m, and is one of the most advanced UAV's the US Navy has. How is it that Iran, one of the lesser developed military's of the world, can just shoot one down?

What, does this thing have a transponder which squawks..."Enemy Drone - Shoot Here!"??

And, if this thing really did go 'off course' due to some kind of a GPS error/failure, then why does this happen? Are there no backup / redundant systems?? (Did Boeing build this thing???...just a barb at Boeing, I know they didn't)

I mean $180m isn't chump change here! An F/A-18E/F costs less than half what this thing does (i.e. $70m).

How is it that Iran can 'spoof' these UAV's, or force them down, or shoot them down...at all??? And, what does this say about a 1st world adversary's capability against our most advanced technology?

If that's the best we can do...I think I want my money back!

a reply to: Flyingclaydisk

It wasn't an MQ4C, it was a Global Hawk.

twitter.com...

originally posted by: Moley
So it seems certain that Iran has deliberately destroyed a valuable US asset. The BBC are reporting that it was a US Navy MQ-4C Triton.

Is it time to take out the missile battery that fired it, and possibly one or two others? Seems a fair and proportional response.

Why do that? What would that achieve? That would be an unnecessary response.

The first course of action would be to summon the Iranian ambassador to the US or, failing that (there is apparently currently no ambassador of such kind right now), ask Iran, through the necessary diplomatic channels, what occurred here and who was responsible.

An immediate military response would be a strange course of action. A nation with $615 billion in annual defense spending having a knee-jerk reaction would certainly be out of the ordinary...