US: Iran Shoots Down Global Hawk; Second Drone Down This Month

[Boats]

US: Iran Shoots Down Global Hawk; Second Drone Down This Month
By: Paul McLeary - Breaking Defense - Report 6-20-19
RE: https://breakingdefense.com/2019/06/...wn-this-month/

The Global Hawk was downed after two earlier shots at US drones in the region, and attacks on commercial shipping.

Photo link: https://sites.breakingmedia.com/uplo...k-Block-40.jpg
Global Hawk reconnaissance drone (no pilot)

Note: What does this weapon cost?
In 2001 it cost ~ 61 million dollars ea.
In 2019 it cost ~ 240 million dollars ea.

WASHINGTON: Iranian forces shot down a RQ-4A Global Hawk surveillance drone over the Strait of Hormuz Wednesday night, US officials confirm. This is the latest, and most significant, of a series of attacks in the region that have inflamed tensions between Tehran and Washington.

The drone “was shot down by an Iranian surface-to-air missile system while operating in international airspace,” Navy Capt. Bill Urban, U.S. Central Command spokesman said in a statement today.

Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps said in a statement earlier in the day that the aircraft had entered its airspace and was brought down by its air force near the Kouh-e Mobarak region.

“Iranian reports that the aircraft was over Iran are false,” Urban said. “This was an unprovoked attack on a U.S. surveillance asset in international airspace.”

The RQ-4 is the Navy’s most advanced high-altitude unmanned aircraft, and is tasked with long-distance missions where it can observe a wide swath of territory, peeking over international borders from well inside international airspace.

There has been no independent confirmation that the drone was either inside Iranian airspace, or over international waters.

Iran’s Mashregh news agency, which has close ties to the Revolutionary Guard, claimed the drone was shot down by the Khordad missile defense system. Unveiled in 2014 but with an updated version rolled out earlier this month, the air defense system is said be be capable of detecting and tracking targets about 95 miles away, and hitting them around 30 miles away.

The incident comes days after the Pentagon confirmed that Iranian-backed Houthi rebels tried to shoot down a US MQ-4 Reaper drone, and Iranian forces also fired a surface-to-air missile at another Reaper, without success.

The June 6 downing was the result of the Houthis firing a Russian-made SA-6 ground-to-air missile which “indicated an improvement over previous Houthi capability,” according to CENTCOM.

The June 13 miss was a modified Iranian SA-7 missile. It is unclear what missile was used in Wednesday’s attack, but one thing is certain: the missile Iran probably fired certainly cost much less than the $130 million Global Hawk.

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Personal note(s):
Re: https://www.militaryfactory.com/smal...allarms_id=162

OK - they say the Iranian's used a modified SA-7 missile?
Origin: Soviet Union
Year: 1968
Mfg.: State Factories - Soviet Union

Operators of this missile: 54 Foreign Countries.
Action: Heat Sensitive Anti-Aircraft Missile System
Sights: Include options.
Range: 4921 feet or 1500 Meters

Model Variants:

The are Nine Variants of this missile configuration available.

So; Russia sells them the basic model and they reconfigure the weapons in accordance to the countries that buy them or the countries themselves reconfigure them?

~ Average Cost per missile purchased: $92k US$ ea.

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Spec's: Notes: This is a dual-missile ground or vehicle mount for SA-16 or SA-18 missiles, similar in concept to the RBS-90 dual missile launcher. It was new issue to Warsaw Pact and Russian troops in 1995, and thus was somewhat rare during the Twilight War. Some shipments also made it to the Middle East, mostly to Iraq and Iran, and some were also encountered in Cuba. The mount takes standard SA-16 or SA-18 missile tubes, which are simply snapped into place. The Dzhigit system includes passive IR for the gunner.

Listing of Russian Missiles
RE: http://www.pmulcahy.com/sams/russian_sams.html

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My thoughts and question:

What protection does our Global Hawk have since being in service now ~ 15 years.
Does it have sensor's to evade incoming missiles? If so - what is it's reactionary time to prevent a premature destruction? This may be classified but it goes to show its not a 100% safe before hitting its target. It seems our enemies know this and have modified their defensive abilities on this weapon.

I would guess nothing is infallible and their countermeasures seem to have caught up to this weapon. Traveling at such high speeds and reacting factors may not be readily available to ensure target acquisition?

Boats

[Boats]

Iran just shot down one of the US military's most advanced drones — it costs more than an F-35 stealth fighter
By: Ryan Pickrell - Business Insider 6-20-19
RE: https://www.businessinsider.com/iran...-drones-2019-6

Note this is a 2nd report of the message posted earlier.

Iranian forces took out a US unmanned aerial vehicle Wednesday evening with a surface-to-air missile, US Central Command confirmed. The drone the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps shot out of the sky happens to be one of the US military's most advanced high-altitude unmanned aircraft.

The Iranians shot down a US Navy Broad Area Maritime Surveillance (BAMS-D) intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance aircraft, specifically a RQ-4A Global Hawk high-altitude long endurance (HALE) drone, which the military uses to conduct recon operations over oceans and coastal waterways.

The US military called the incident "an unprovoked attack on a US surveillance asset in international airspace" over the Strait of Hormuz, the entrance to the Persian Gulf. The Iranians have accused the US drone of entering Iranian airspace, an allegation Central Command characterized as completely false.

The RQ-4, which informed the development of the newer MQ-4C drones, is one of the most advanced high-altitude drones being employed operationally, The War Zone said. These aircraft, Northrop Grumman aircraft that have been used extensively in the Persian Gulf, rely on a suite of high-end electronic sensors and other intelligence-gathering systems to peer into other countries.

The aircraft, which is used by both the US Air Force and the US Navy, has a price tag higher than the US military's new F-35 stealth fighters. A Global Hawk has a unit cost of roughly $123 million, while an F-35A Lightning II Joint Strike Fighter costs only $89 million.

"This isn't a throwaway drone whose loss the US will just shrug off," Ulrike Franke, a drone expert with the European Council on Foreign Relations, said on Twitter. But it's not just the price tag that makes the loss of this drone a big deal. "This drone was specifically designed to be largely invulnerable," she added, explaining that they are harder to take out because they fly at altitudes beyond the reach of some air defense defense systems.

"The RQ-4 flies at upwards of 65,000 feet," Tyler Rogoway, the editor of The War Zone, wrote. "So this would have been a sophisticated radar-guided surface-to-air missile that shot the aircraft down, not a shoulder-fired, heat-seeking missile."

Iran said the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps shot down the US drone with an upgraded Khordad missile-defense system, which can detect and track targets 95 miles away and down them at a distance of 30 miles, Breaking Defense reported. The system can target enemy aircraft flying as high as 81,000 feet, or roughly 15 miles.

The Global Hawk does not have any stealth capabilities or high-end countermeasures for penetration missions, leaving it vulnerable to any air defense systems that can hit high-altitude targets.

The latest incident comes just days after the crew of an Iranian boat fired an SA-7 surface-to-air missile at a MQ-9 Reaper drone, a roughly $15 million drone, but missed. Wednesday's shoot-down marks a serious escalation in tensions between the US and Iran.