Posted on December 20, 2011 - by Venik

Iran’s New Stealth UAV

In December of 2009 the USAF has officially confirmed the existence of a new stealth UAV – the Lockheed-Martin RQ-170. In the December 4 statement, the USAF said the new aircraft “aligns with Secretary of Defense Robert M Gates’ request for increased intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance support to the combatant commanders and Chief of Staff General Norton Schwartz’s vision for an increased USAF reliance on unmanned aircraft”.

It has been further disclosed that the new reconnaissance aircraft is being operated by Air Combat Command’s (ACC) 30th Reconnaissance Squadron based at Tonopah Test Range, Nevada, a part of the 432nd Wing at Creech Air Force Base, Nevada.Earlier in 2009 the aircraft has been photographed in Afghanistan. In December of 2009 Jane’s Defence Weekly wrote:

“There has been much speculation as to what a low-observable UAV might be doing operating in a theatre in which there is no radar-guided air defence threat. There have been suggestions that, with the Iranian border only about 400 km to the west, its deployment may have less to do with fighting the Taliban and more to do with keeping tabs on Tehran’s nuclear ambitions. “

(source: USAF confirms existence of stealthy UAV, by Gareth Jennings, Jane’s Defence Weekly, Dec 10, 2009)

And now, almost exactly two years after its original sighting, the mysterious RQ-170, designed to spy on the Iranian nuclear program, is sitting at an undisclosed military base in northern Iran, being dissected by Iranian engineers, who are expected to be joined by their Russian and Chinese colleagues. So much for Washington’s efforts to keep sensitive military technologies away from Iran.

Iran claims to have taken control of the aircraft remotely when it was some 225km into the country’s airspace. The photos and videos of the captured RQ-170 shown on the Iranian TV appear to support this story. The aircraft shows very little damage, possibly suggesting a controlled crash-landing. There is possible damage to the undercarriage. Also, the wings appear to have been removed – likely for transportation from the crash-landing site – and then reattached for display.

Some outlandish theories have been proposed by usually respected defense analysts. Thus, John Pike of GlobalSecurity.org suggested that the aircraft shown on the Iranian TV was a mockup (he called it “a parade float”), because it did not look quite what Mr. Pike have seen on the photos. Of course, since this interview by John Pike the US government has officially acknowledged the loss of the RQ-170 and asked Iran to return the aircraft. Fat chance of that happening.

Another expert to weigh in on the issue was Bill Sweetman, the editor for Aviation Week group, who suggested that the aircraft might have lost the link with the control station and tumbled down from the sky like a leaf to a soft landing.  I have not published any books on aviation but I did study physics quite a bit and I would love to see how a jet-powered leaf with a 90-foot wingspan falls from several thousand feet and sustains no visible damage. And whoever came up with the theory that the RQ-170 somehow automatically landed on an unknown Iranian airfield after losing connection with the controller, has been watching too much Star Trek.

The most likely explanation – however bruising to the American ego – is the one given by the Iranians. All available facts suggest that they indeed hacked the RQ-170, intercepted and decrypted flight control communications and managed to crash-land the machine with relatively little damage. How this aircraft was taken from the US military is a much more important issue than what Iran will be able to learn from the aircraft’s technology. We seem to have deeply underestimated Iran’s ECM capabilities.

At this time we do not know if the captured RQ-170 was carrying any weapons. Similar to other large American recon UAVs modified to carry tactical air-to-ground missiles, the “Sentinel” could have been adapted to carry weapons.

“Aircraft is apparently employed only in an ISR-gathering role, but appears to be large enough to permit an internal bay that could, notwithstanding the RQ designation, accommodate weapons if required to do so.”

(source: Lockheed Martin RQ-170 Sentinel, Jane’s Defence Equipment and Technology, Dec 13, 2011)

Some Russian defense analysts suggested a possibility that the 1L222 “Avtobaza” ELINT system recently supplied by Russia to Iran might have been used to mess with RQ-170′s radio linkup with the American control station. The 1L222 is one of the most sophisticated pieces of military equipment ever sold by Russia to Iran.

“Operating within the 8,000 to 17,544 MHz frequency range, the AVTOBAZA ELINT system is designed to detect airborne side-looking, air-to-surface fire-control and terrain following/avoidance radars and comprises an equipment vehicle (based on the Ural-43203 wheeled chassis equipped with a K1.4320 box-body) and an ED2x16-T230P-1VAS generator installed on a Ural-4310 wheeled chassis. System functions include data hand-off to a 1L125M APUR jamming control centre (which can be up to 100 m from the AVTOBAZA architecture); direction-finding; the establishment of an emitter’s azimuth and elevation; the establishment of an emitter’s frequency, pulse-width and pulse repetition frequency and emitter classification.”

(source: AVTOBAZA ELectronic INTelligence (ELINT) system, Jane’s Radar And Electronic Warfare Systems, Oct 10, 2011)

Regardless of whether or not the Russians were involved, the fact that Iranians were able to take this highly-classified toy from the US military is quite embarassing and potentially very damaging to the US security. To it’s credit, the White House turned down DoD’s insane plan to launch a military operation to retrieve the aircraft from Iran. Otherwise, the Iranian might have gotten a chance to parade some US soldiers in shackles next to the captured spy plane. You cannot let the same commanders, who underestimated Iran’s capabilities, plan a military operation in Iran. Such a plan can only end in a disaster.

As to the RQ-170 and its technology – in a couple of years we will probably see some “Sentinelnejad” and “Sentinelski” flying around with a small Lyulka or Aviadvigatel turbofan engine. The billions of your dollars that went into developing the RQ-170 and all the advanced electronics it’s stuffed with will now help the Iranians, Russians and the Chinese save a lot of time and money. The US military needs to pull its head out of its giant ass and realize that not all of it enemies are peasants with shovels and pitchforks. Some actually have skills.

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