I don't believe the drone lost over Iran is legit.

[phreesh]

Besides optimism, what reason does the OP have for feeling this was done on purpose?

I see no upside. I don’t see a ton of political fallout, but the US looks pretty bad and incompetent for this.

[Philster]

Meh - this is MPSIMS… I just blurted out something mundane. Kick up some bantor. I’d sort of like it if I found out the whole thing was a ruse.

It makes the Iranian officials say some pretty stupid things.

Would be fun to drop a bogus drone on them with misleading technology, create a diversion and a misunderstanding and then use the latest ones in some covert anti-nuke campaign.

[LSLGuy]

@jjimm

What I find incredibly bizarre is that Obama has publicly asked for it back.

That really doesn’t sound like normal antagonistic diplomacy to me. Because of that I agree that there’s some interesting double- or triple-bluff jiggery-pokery going on. For the US president to take such a ‘humiliating’ stance in public there must be something else going on.

Whenever a Soviet pilot defected the USSR always asked for their jet back. It’s just part of how the diplomacy-with-guns game is played.

[Duckster]

@lisiate

And the US just lost another one over the Seychelles.

While I can understand overflying Iran (although it’s needlessly provocative in my opinion), why on earth is the US operating drones over the Seychelles of all places? Looking for pirates in the Indian Ocean?

The Chinese are planning to establish a navel base there.

[Kozmik]

@Dewey_Finn

The drone that the Iranian government displayed didn’t look damaged at all. It didn’t appear to have any crash damage. That was weird.

I’m sure that they “shined it up” for its big presentation.

[NurseCarmen]

Never assign to conspiracy that which can just as easily be assigned to incompetence.

[Patch]

@Kozmik

I’m sure that they “shined it up” for its big presentation.

Iran’s claiming they hacked the drone and programmed it to land safely in Iran.

[ralph124c]

@Duckster

The Chinese are planning to establish a navel base there.

Are the Chinese planning to go “Navels bare” or “Navels covered” in the Seychelles?

[Indian]

American researchers took control of a flying drone by hacking into its GPS system - acting on a $1,000 (£640) dare from the US Department of Homeland Security .

BBC Link.

Hacked drones could become missiles over U.S., researchers warn

Link.

[The_Niply_Elder]

Zombie kamikaze drones

[Zebra]

The spoofed drone used an unencrypted GPS signal, which is normally used by civilian planes, says Noel Sharkey, co-founder of the International Committee for Robot Arms Control.

“It’s easy to spoof an unencrypted drone. Anybody technically skilled could do this - it would cost them some £700 for the equipment and that’s it,” he told BBC News.

"It’s very dangerous - if a drone is being directed somewhere using its GPS, [a spoofer] can make it think it’s somewhere else and make it crash into a building, or crash somewhere else, or just steal it and fill it with explosives and direct somewhere.

"But the big worry is - it also means that it wouldn’t be too hard for [a very skilled person] to work out how to un-encrypt military drones and spoof them, and that could be extremely dangerous because they could turn them on the wrong people

underline mine
They hacked a toy helicopter. I think their claim that a wouldn’t be too hard to do it to military encryption is overly optimistic.

[ralph124c]

This opens a whole new chapter in warfare-what if the USA is attacked by one of its own drones? Say a terrorist group gets control of one-and flies it into the White House-the executive branch gets taken out…and nobody says anything (the US DOD is too embarrassed, and the terrorists don’t want to show their hand).
Truly bizarre!

[Nametag]

@Zebra

…it also means that it wouldn’t be too hard for [a very skilled person] to work out how to un-encrypt military drones and spoof them…

They hacked a toy helicopter. I think their claim that a wouldn’t be too hard to do it to military encryption is overly optimistic.

Yeah, that line reminds me of the recipe for rabbit stew: "This is a quick and easy recipe, using ingredients that almost everyone has around the house.

First, catch a rabbit…"

[Paul_in_Qatar]

How about a not-so-good test version of a drone? We will it with false technology leads (Stealth against smell detection, Psi-based sensors, 1920’s death rays) maybe even computer viruses and let that sucker malfunction over Iraq?

I like the idea. Tom Clancy, call your office!