"We have no comment on this individual's claims," George Little, the Pentagon's chief spokesman, tells Danger Room, "but tell him the Secretary would like his lightsaber back."

I like this guy.

So did they actually take down a real drone? Because now it sounds fake and like we went along with it for some reason or another.

GAT_00: So did they actually take down a real drone? Because now it sounds fake and like we went along with it for some reason or another.

They did. They jammed the signal that controls the drone, which causes it to automatically fly back to base and land. To get there, it navigates using GPS. Iran spoofed the GPS signals, making it think it was landing at it base in Afganistan, when instead it was landing in Iran. The curtain around the bottom of the drone was likely to hide damage caused during landing which could have been caused by a difference of elevation or Iran not having enough precision with the GPS spoofing to land it on a proper air strip.

The ability to spoof GPS signals has been known since at least the 1980's, but this was the first time someone has actually done it outside a proof of concept. The signals are relatively weak, so its easy to use ground based transmitters to overpower the real signal and provide false information.

ShawnDoc: The signals are relatively weak,

GPS signals are the equivalent of trying to light a basketball court with a half dozen flashlights. It's insane they work.

You'd think between this and the chopper we lost in getting Osama, the military would develop technologies that essentially self-destruct (or jam up) when they are no longer under our control.

TommyDeuce: Hmmm, I wonder if the DoD has access to any kind of tech that would prevent spoofing?

From what I've read, they don't. They're working on a new system to replace GPS that solves this issue, but its not currently live. The current GPS system is ancient, and all it does is send out a satellite id and the time. The GPS receiver then triangulates based on this info.

There's also a really good program about what's going on in Afghanistan and international politics on KFI 640AM called "The Dark Secret Place" hosted by a Iraq war veteran, and since southern California is home to a lot of defense contractors, especially the drones, he has really good coverage of what's going on. You can listen to it on iheartradio, or also download past shows via podcast.
Podcast (new window)

And no, its not some wack job conspiracy theory show.

I know exactly who the Iranians are co-operating with...EX-TER-MIN-ATE! EX-TER-MIN-ATE!

ShawnDoc: GAT_00: So did they actually take down a real drone? Because now it sounds fake and like we went along with it for some reason or another.

They did. They jammed the signal that controls the drone, which causes it to automatically fly back to base and land. To get there, it navigates using GPS. Iran spoofed the GPS signals, making it think it was landing at it base in Afganistan, when instead it was landing in Iran. The curtain around the bottom of the drone was likely to hide damage caused during landing which could have been caused by a difference of elevation or Iran not having enough precision with the GPS spoofing to land it on a proper air strip.

The ability to spoof GPS signals has been known since at least the 1980's, but this was the first time someone has actually done it outside a proof of concept. The signals are relatively weak, so its easy to use ground based transmitters to overpower the real signal and provide false information.

That's what Iran says happened... Some people don't just take them at their word:
Link (new window)

It's also difficult to jam a drone's GPS. "They've got defenses against these kinds of spoofing attacks," says Todd Humphreys, who has researched GPS spoofing at the University of Texas' Radionavigation Laboratory. "They mount their antennas on the top of the drones and sometimes the antennas have the ability to null out jamming or spoofing signals."

Humphreys isn't buying the Iranian engineer's explanation of why the apparent RQ-170 Sentinel's underbelly appeared damaged in the footage released by Iran. The engineer told the Monitor that the drone's underbelly was scuffed because of a slight difference between the altitude of its actual home base in Afghanistan and the location where it allegedly landed in Iran.

"This is nonsense," says Humphreys. If the Iranians had been able to spoof the GPS unit in the precise way they claimed, they also would have also been able to control its altitude. "That opens up two scenarios. Either [the engineer] is a user of equipment he's got from abroad" and doesn't understand its capabilities, "or he's making it up."

The spoofing danger isn't new. "On the military side," says Humphreys, "they've known about this threat for 20-30 years."

A Fark Handle: i, for one, am just excited for our next war. once this election shiat dies down, we're going to need a new news story or two. sure a couple of white girls can go missing, but we need something bigger...why not invade iran before they can deploy their secret force of flying saucers and force fields? we'll fight 'em over there.

(FTFA) and the yellow model that Iran has peddled out looks like it's made out of fondant, like a drone-shaped cake constructed for an episode of Food Network Challenge.

(it's already been said already, but: mmmmm...cake)