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US Drones Dropping Like Flies
Perhaps it is time for the stick-jockeys who are controlling US drones to put down the twinky and focus a little more. Reuters is reporting that yet another US drone has crashed, this time while it was vacationing in the Seychelles. The Seychelles Civil Aviation Authority (SCAA) confirmed the incident and said that the plane was on a "routine patrol" and had crashed because of mechanical failure. On the bright side, this has to be good for GDP as Durable Goods orders (or maybe they should be repositioned as non-durable) will get a bump as General Atomics gets some new Predator orders.
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Could be the "invisible hand" is swatting them down like flies? It is Christmas soon after all! Signs and wonders, ye all!
put down the twinkie & focus bitchez!
Must be that Santa is automating and testing drone naughty or nice surveillance and pilotless delivery for Christmas toys and goodies.
Chinese hackers...
"Made in China"
Pilotless airlines; would you get in one?
Coincidence?
all those years of letting you lazy-ass video game addicts stay home from school to perfect your skills on a ps-2 stick gone to waste.
anyone know if these drones went down in the early AM hours (say around 8 AM) when those operators may be a bit out of their element?
I think very hard negotiations take place between Chinese and Iranians for tranfering the US drone.
The super latest stealth and contra-measures against it, optical and IR sensors, data processing and secure communication, and jet technologies Chinese will get from the drone are just priceless. It is in tens of billions dollars.
This is just a catastrophe for the US military and its going forward combat startegy.
history will record it well.
In 2-3 years the US military will have no control over its missiles...
For what it's worth I disagree. Stealth is not a new technology, nor is it something alien to the rest of the world. The manufacturing process that can yield radar-absorbent material are probably much more secret. Just because they get their hands on a piece of hardware doesn't mean they'll be able to reverse-engineer it. The reasons these countries don't have these weapons is mostly due to an inability to manufacture them or pay for them, not usually a question of knowing what it is. For example, I know the rules of basketball very well, know what it takes to make a good shot, know basic strategies, yet I am still absolutely terrible at basketball.
Instead they look for cheap fixes to counteract the advantage it gives us... and then let us spend ridiculous amounts of money on expensive weapons that can be brought down by cheap means. For example, the F-117 that was shot down in Yugoslavia all those years back used visual observers following the flight path of the aircraft and an SA-2 missile fired ballistically. That's a pretty lucky shot but it's about as low-tech as you can get without throwing a big rock at it. B-2s actually do reflect some radar, they just have a radar cross-section smaller than a flock of birds. It is also designed to reflect radar away from the source (the F-117's angular design makes this very obvious), yet you can still detect it by using sensors arranged away from the source (ie anti-stealth blimps). The reason we don't see these sort of tactics employed is because they are simply not worth it. Even if they were able to cripple our stealth capability they still wouldn't be able to fly due to our overwhelming advantage in air to air combat. Sure we'd lose more planes and with it lives and money, but they would pouring quite a bit of resources into something with a relatively low return. Better to spend that money on other things that have greater returns (especially considering half the wars are fought in the media these days).
"B-2s actually do reflect some radar, they just have a radar cross-section smaller than a flock of birds."
Personally, if I were operating a radar system, I would consider any flock of birds traveling in excess of mock 1.5 as hostile.
How would you know? A search radar has a physical sweep in a circle, it gets a hit on a plot then hits it again on its next pass. If your radar was calibrated to return hits on cross-sections as small as a flock of birds you would have hundreds of false returns and wouldn't even be able to determine speed or position. Even if you painted the thing with an acquisition radar (which sweeps a beam back and forth and "paints" and follows the target), the pilot of the B-2 has a radar warning receiver that is going to tip them off to exactly what you're doing and get the hell out of there. They probably also have a pseudo-jamming/wave canceling device on board that would prevent a solid radar lock anyway. So it goes back to the same question, why spend all that money to down a multi-billion dollar aircraft and kill 3 people when you could spend a tiny fraction and get some dumb kid to rig a bomb on the side of the road that kills 7? Sure downing a stealth would be a huge media frenzy and would probably instill some fear, but it probably wouldn't give the same return long-term.
Who says one can't engineer a radar system that only registers fast closing hits larger than a goose? In fact, just filter out all hits BUT very fast approaching flocks of birds.
Something tells me that, after today, a lot of companies will have enough information on said fast flying flocks to do just that. Just saying...
Serbs used cell-phone towers to locate that F-117.
Couldn't see directly, but its radar-scattering shape & signal jammers made a moving 'hole' in their cell phone coverage, when the planes flew low.
Using old Soviet equipment & cell-phone microwave towers, engineers used the moving hole to target missiles, & downed an F-117,
Methinks the B-2's in a fight with a real enemy will last as long as aircraft carriers, which is likely less than a day.
The words you are having are making many sensibilities but many stupids here will be having feelings that president obama is doing it wrongly and is probably having many blames for the crashing of drones.
Please don't let it be misconstrued that I do not totally disagree.
Keeps the drones in the drone factories busy I guess ?
Oil just rocketed up.
Trojan Horses, falling from the skys.
I'm ok! Have my foil hat on!!!
Oil just rocketed up.
Exactly as planned by the tribe.
Exactly. Don't worry, this is all part of the master plan. Trust me. They know what they are doing.
Everything that has happened, has happened. I am sure that the next thing that happens will also happen next. I have noticed that things keep happening. One after another, ad infinitum. I am sure things will keep happening over and over. It is planned, if not just "so". Those damn bastards keep making things happen! Curse them all!
I am not trusting you. I am not having any reasons for trusting you. You are making sounds that are having no reasons for trusting them. Many peoples are saying the words "trust me' until hearing the words "trust me" makes people have the feeling in their stomachs that makes the breakfast they were having appear on their shoes.
I am not trusting you. I am not having any reasons for trusting you. You are making sounds that are having no reasons for trusting them. Many peoples are saying the words "trust me' until hearing the words "trust me" makes people have the feeling in their stomachs that makes the breakfast they were having appear on their shoes.
With Bernanke at the helm, what could you expect?
All by design to give this war monger a reason to divert attention away from all of his failures.
A mechanical failure turn diplomacy failure to cover up an economic failure, it all makes sense.
I only hope one crashes into the white house, then another directly into clowngress during full session. Then there just might be a chance for survival.
Merry Christmas it would be!
In the Seychelles?
They are using the drones to track Somalian Pirates now. Arrrgh!
Those pirates! They're so hot right now!
Can they spare a few for K-Street, Eccles, and Wall St?
i feel that this Somali pirates issue has also got some nice twist to it ...even the Indian navy is involed there...god knows what is actually going on ...
Was that a Charlie Brown, "Arrgh!" or a Jack Sparrow, "Arrgh!"?
Pirates?
Didn't think of that.
Yes, to get to the Seychelles just head for China and turn left...
indeed,... and the chinese have just lately been patronized by the 'seychelles' - offering them a friendly 'port-of-call', for their seafaring 'aircraft carrier' - amusing, and timely one would say?
I doubt this is just coincidence. China obviously can hack them and bring them down at will. They just proved it.
So much for the idea that unmanned drones would replace the need for human pilots...very hard to hack into a pilot. Unmanned drones not so much.
Seychelles won't give drone back. now tourist attraction.
Kinda like your avatar.
Hah!
Having lived in the Seychelles back on the cold-war 70s, methinks those huge golfballs (aka radomes) on top of Mahe's highest peak had that poor little drone circling home to Mama!
WTF are we doing "routine patrols" in the Seychelles for? Predators looking for topless Kim Kardashian pics?
Have to make sure the financial off shore banking areas remain secure.
The Seychelles just offered a naval base to the Chinese. Coincidence?
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/A/AS_CHINA_SEYCHELLES?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2011-12-12-21-46-38
does oil have a smell about it?
this too http://www.stratfor.com/analysis/20111212-dispatch-chinese-navys-possibl...
The stick jockeys (20 somethings) got a little bored and decided to scope out the Seychelle beaches for naked chicks. Nothing to worry about.
Must of grabbed the wrong stick.
NPR had a story on 'drone school'. Think it is as the University of South Dakota. Good career opportunity as RPV's are a growth field.
i thought all U.S. universities qualified as drone schools.
A function of bandwidth in the dorms for X-Wing vs Tie-Fighter training sessions.
Strange the first reporred drone deployment in the US was in North Dakota! Coincidence?
Strange the first reported drone deployment in the US was in North Dakota! Coincidence?
Could this be where they are getting their training?
Damn diploma mill.
http://airhogs.com/
China is looking to build a Naval Base in the Seychelles......
What ever happened to "Dr. No" in the Carribbean?
Can you say chinese (military-backed) hackers?
Iranians claim they shot it down
Lest we forget, this is the island that has invited the Chinese in
http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/12/13/china-seychelles-navy-idUSL3E7ND2SG20111213
Hardly a vacation, this is definitely a contested area
Socotra would make a much more interesting place for the Chinese PLAN to drop anchor.
Check out Socotra (I looked at some Panaramio pics). What a beautiful island.
Some nerd in a basement probably cracked the unencrypted signal.
Cool. Unit cost of these $154 Million. Would take care of 100 families for 10 years.
That's the price of imperial banker-freedom on the other side of the world, baby.
"They hate you for your freedom" -- G.W. Bush
We'll know the system is really and truly hacked when one of these babies turns rogue and puts a couple of Hellfires through the roof of Karzai's presential palace. Oops!
Well the least I can say is that we've probably seen the shapes of the next two aircraft that will fly into buildings in the US...
Can't use the "boxcutter" trick twice you know...
Hi PV - actually there's no need to waste perfectly good drones by flying them into buildings. Unlike hijacked civilian airliners drones could stand off and fire major weapons - hopefully hitting the big glass executive offices and Board rooms on the top floors while sparing the worker bees below. (Just kidding - I would absolutely HATE to see something like that happen. USA! USA!)
Guess the TSA will have to start screening all those drone jockeys at Nellis AFB as they come to work. Full body scan plus very thorough cavity search would be good. Can't be too careful after all, these are guys who love their work wiping out wedding parties and schools - who knows what they might turn to when that stuff gets dull and routine.
Women drivers.
there are drones everywhere... yesterday there was a story about how a predator drone was called in in Cali? to find some missing cows after a bunch of guys with guns ran the county sheriff off their property...
did none of these geniuses in high places bother to watch terminator?
we all know how this ends...long skynet, rad protection suits, REM's and people named Conner.
I believe it was in N. Dakota.
They patrol the Somali coast for pirates.
President Girly Man is demanding the return of our drone. I hacked the WH email and intercepted the Iranian reply. It is here: http://thecivillibertarian.blogspot.com/2011/12/gimme-back-my-drone.html
Do they really use Windows Software in this Flight Simulator ?
or pull your pants up....eerrrrr
Interesting to say the least. It reminds me of a child's R/C toy that operates normally except for when there is interference and off it goes to crash into a wall.
Usually this happens more outside than in...
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/A/AS_CHINA_SEYCHELLES?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2011-12-12-21-46-38
China says mulling Seychelles naval hosting offer
They crashed this one on purpose in order to give evidence to their claim the one Iran has came down in an accident as well. They are cheap, I mean who pays for 'em? China via buying treasury bonds, no?
The Chinese hacked the drones months ago, or since the MSM didn't report it was it now widely known?
They were just looking for a good opportunity to get their hands on one and now they have. The real question should be is what type was it and was it armed.
Yup,
http://www.trackinfections.com/americas-drones-have-been-infected-virus-g357519858-p3
This shit has been going on since at least 2009:
Insurgents Hack U.S. Drones $26 Software Is Used to Breach Key Weapons in Iraq; Iranian Backing Suspectedhttp://online.wsj.com/article/SB126102247889095011.html
Note how the WSJ has to add in the "Iranian" plug... Now it's the "Chinese" plug. Why don't they just drop it all and go for the generic "Evil Doers" plug? (Evil Doers: those who would impede the US defense industry their profits)
The Chinese seem to love these type of exibitions. Just off the top of my head:
1. China blows up a satellite
2. China surfaces a sub within 5 miles of one of our carriers
3. China launches a sub based missle test 50 miles off LA
4. China downs drones in Iran, and now the Seychelles
BTW, we have trained many of these Chinese nationals in our best universities. I hear they call MIT the "War University" because every chinese national that attends goes straight back to work in their defense dept. ... WTF are we doing?
"WTF are we doing?"
they are sowing the seeds for ongoing global wars, highly profitable (ad)venture capitalism.
when you realise that humans are assigned "national" status, but corporation know no boundaries, it begins to make more sense.
When I was a plebe in the USAF we were training Iranian flyboys on US soil where? Texas!!! WTFare we letting the machine get away with? BTW we were training them @ Lackland AFB in 1976! Viva the bicentennial!!!
This is almost as bad as Airbusses falling out of the sky.
http://www.popularmechanics.com/technology/aviation/crashes/what-really-...
That was entirely human error.
The cause here is is not known yet.
Hey ZH, it's a pretty low blow to blame the downed drones on the pilots flying them. Did you have a high school student write this one? There are many things that can cause technology to fail. To assume the loss of all military hardware is due to operator error is pretty damn disrespectful and shallow.
disrespectful of who exactly?
the joystick boys who bomb human families on their "game" screens?
no respect for that, sorry.
The first drone was a trojan. An intact drone of the latest and greatest model just lands in Iran's lap without a scratch right after they clear stuxnet out of their machines. How convenient. Perhaps they wanted Iran to bite down on the hook a bit harder so they dumped another one.
After 18 recent explosions, it's pretty obvious to anyone with two neurons to rub together that Stuxnet has yet to be cleared, dood.....
in Seychelles ????!!!@@@%%%.......
we has drone bases everywhere
This is what drones are FOR, they are expendable. 2 military recon helicopters just crashed and 4 service members are dead. Drones are good, an advanced technology and should continue to be sacrificed for the US's good.
That sounds all warm and fuzzy until they've (the enemy or our own gov) have hacked and reprogrammed them to fly over your city and bomb the piss outta everything near and dear to you now isn't it?
The privatized "Military-Industrial Complex" has compromised our nation with its Executive, Legislative and Judicial branches in a dance for the plundering of the many for huge profits. "Opium" has been central in the many wars for centuries. Those rogue elements who are agents for the 'plutocracy' have gained in the global illegal drug trade much economic and financial strength. They hijacked the intricate networking designed in our IRS as the vehicle aligned with the FED in extrapolating all possibilities for funding these covert CIA activities in creating their perpetual abyss of 'tax payer' money infinitely. 50% of each hard earned USD by all American workers goes into the coffers of these rogue ones in our "Military-Industrial Complex" owned by the 'plutocracy' as well as with their independently owned FED continuing to print out of thin air the USDs which will always create the national "Deficit" as another revenue source for the powerful 'banking elite' to control our nation's flow of all our currency daily.
The "mass media" plays a major part in the propaganda filtered in timely fashion as an inducement for our minds to process as the current events unfold daily. It becomes the 'heartbeat' on a global stage with the "Stock Market" pundits blaring a planned text culminating with nefarious systems of the "Ponzi" schematic occurrences. It has been the best money laundering operation for the 'plutocracy' in our world's history.
The final privatization which will give them their ultimate prize in their steadfast march for their "New World Order" aka NWO is the complete control of our 'space explorations' designed in the federal "Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency" aka DARPA which controls the "National Aeronautics and Space Administration" aka NASA.It is all just a heartbeat away from our reality.
+1 Nailed it. Ex CIA?
No wonder the Chinese are "mulling Seychelles naval hosting offer" (AP story). They obviously need an upgrade to their last wing they got from Iran so they're sending their navy to go shopping.
Actions Have Consequences
Recently, Iran hacked into, and brought down, an incredibly expensive, state-of-the-art, stealth drone spying above their country.
Now how was that possible?
A joint Iran/Pakistan/Chinese operation made it possible with the absolute and corrupt collusion of Corporate America and the Wall Street-owned American government!
The Chinese penetrated the drone operations *** in the USA, inserting malware and permanent key loggers to copy operational data.
Then from that Chinese network penetration, and aided by elements within Pakistan who had previously intercepted drone satellite communications, Iran was successfully able to compromise the stealth drone (otherwise its self-return and/or self-destruct subroutines would have functioned).
And this was made possible only by Wall Street’s monolithic offshoring of American jobs, American technology, foreign aid and strategic assets to China.
And President Obama, taking time away from his constant and impeachably false pronouncements that the bankers didn’t break any laws, asks Iran to return the incredibly expensive and compromised spy drone ---- and Iran says “NO!”. (FYI: Since you’ve demonstrated zero knowledge of the law as president, Mr. Obama, allow me to explain that under international and maritime law, Iran gets to keep the drone! Understand?)
Actions Have Consequences
***
http://www.trackinfections.com/americas-drones-have-been-infected-virus-g357519858-p3
"Dropping like flies"??????
Oh, you must be referring to the NY Yankees????
they should have bought the extended warranty. bitchz.
"Flying drones ain't like dustin' crops, boy!"