[Jimbuna]

Originally Posted by Skybird

Link?

Earlier this day I read on some meanwhile forgotten side that Obama had ruled ouzt a demand by the armed forced to derstroy the drone via an air strike. Those precious diplomatic sentiments, you know, talks in Paris with Vietnam in flames and all that.

According to BBC and the NYT, Iran claims to have electronically hijacked the drone, and then remote-controlled it to a safe landing.

Don'T know if the claim is true - but that in can be done - and would be done sooner or later by somebody - I think must be clear to everybody. You can harden electronics and comm-links. And you can penetrate hardened systems.

This hitech gadgets and warfare is all nice and well against an inferior enemy. But an enemy of sufficient own hitech capability turns a dependency on such hitech stuff into something that can unpleasantly boomerang against you. You launch a drone to bomb the enemy - and the drone gets hijacked and bombs you. You have clever ammunitions navigating by itself on basis of GPS, and somebody floods the atmosphere with static noise. You have trained supoerior movement coordination via computerised, satellite-supported comm-links, and somebody switches the birds off or silences their chirping.

I don't profess to speak from a position of definite understanding...but I doubt thry currently have the capability.....I certainly hope they don't.