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posted by martyb on Thursday June 20 2019, @02:35PM   Printer-friendly
from the when-popularity-at-home-lags,-start-a-war dept.

Iran says it's 'completely ready for war' after US official confirms it shot down American drone

In a major provocation, Iran shot down an unarmed and unmanned U.S. Navy MQ-4C Triton drone while it was flying in international airspace over the Strait of Hormuz Thursday, a U.S. official told ABC News.

The incident is sure to trigger serious discussions within the Trump administration about how to respond to a direct attack on a U.S. military asset that goes beyond recent attacks in the Middle East that the U.S. has blamed on Iran.

Gulf crisis: US confirms drone was shot down by Iranian missile

A US military surveillance drone has been shot down by Iranian forces while flying over the Strait of Hormuz. Iran's Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) said the drone had violated Iranian airspace. But US military said it had been over international waters. IRGC commander-in-chief Maj-Gen Hossein Salami said the downing of the drone sent a "clear message to America" that Iran's borders were its "red line".

It comes at a time of escalating tension between the US and Iran. On Monday, the US defence department said it was deploying 1,000 extra troops to the region in response to "hostile behaviour" by Iranian forces. The US has also accused Iran of attacking two oil tankers with mines last Thursday just outside the Strait of Hormuz, in the Gulf of Oman. Iran rejects the allegation.

Previously: Two Oil Tankers Attacked, US Blames Iran


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  • (Score: 4, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday June 20 2019, @03:49PM (15 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Thursday June 20 2019, @03:49PM (#857990)

    No, we'd be going to war because the U.S. wants a war and destroying the drone would be the excuse.

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  • (Score: 2, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday June 20 2019, @04:07PM (6 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Thursday June 20 2019, @04:07PM (#858002)

    hmmm .. let's see: how far is it from the coast of N.Y. to the GPS-powered UN-manned drone flying near/at the iran coast?
    how far is it from the iran coast to the aerial spy-robot?
    you know ... you cannot really fault the iran for being a bit nervous and maybe trigger happy. also if the drone flew over the border, the interceptor was launched and in the mean time the drone totally computed that it went to far and flew back, meeting the interceptor and maybe falling outside the border lol.

    nobody seems to be showing much restraint ... least of all 'murikans with precious unmanned flying telescopes half a globe away from home?

    maybe it's a bit like a camera on public grounds pointed straight at your shower window?

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday June 20 2019, @04:37PM (3 children)

      by Anonymous Coward on Thursday June 20 2019, @04:37PM (#858035)

      Crazy Americans?
      They haven't triggered explosives on oil tankers.
      Who do you think did?

      • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday June 20 2019, @05:07PM

        by Anonymous Coward on Thursday June 20 2019, @05:07PM (#858062)

        *Shrug* The public photos showing the damage to the oil tankers way above the waterline are perfectly compatible with drone bombing.

        Dunno, someone flying drones out there?

      • (Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday June 20 2019, @05:11PM (1 child)

        by Anonymous Coward on Thursday June 20 2019, @05:11PM (#858065)

        What would be the point of guessing? That would only add fuel to a fire or start a new one. I want proof and I'm not in a position to investigate the case.

        • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday June 20 2019, @10:29PM

          by Anonymous Coward on Thursday June 20 2019, @10:29PM (#858275)

          they should make tesla oil tankers. you know, the ones with "all around" cameras that show soccer moms "accidentally" scratching the paint whilst reloading the next batch of growing up yealousy...

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday June 20 2019, @05:37PM (1 child)

      by Anonymous Coward on Thursday June 20 2019, @05:37PM (#858087)

      The max speed of an RQ-9 is 340 knots. The Khordad 3 operates in excess of 2,000 knots speed. That's a differential of about 33 miles per minute, or the entire width of the Strait of Hormuz in about 40 seconds. Not a whole of of wiggle room to be on the right side of a border with that.

      Then again, back in 1988 the US managed to down Iran Air 655 over Iranian territorial waters, so I wonder just how good the US is at knowing where the international border is.

      • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday June 21 2019, @02:42AM

        by Anonymous Coward on Friday June 21 2019, @02:42AM (#858393)

        It is a factor of 6 difference.
        So in the time that the missile went 37 km, the drone went about 6. Would 6km put it back over the border?
        That's assuming it was fired from the closest point on the coast. Quite likely that the missile traveled further, giving the drone more time.

  • (Score: -1, Redundant) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday June 20 2019, @05:10PM (5 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Thursday June 20 2019, @05:10PM (#858064)

    because the U.S. wants a war

    It's not because the U.S. wants the war.

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday June 20 2019, @05:15PM

      by Anonymous Coward on Thursday June 20 2019, @05:15PM (#858069)

      It's just that Game of Thrones ended at you have nothing better to do?

    • (Score: 5, Insightful) by Thexalon on Thursday June 20 2019, @05:41PM (3 children)

      by Thexalon (636) on Thursday June 20 2019, @05:41PM (#858088)

      The claim that the US doesn't want a war with Iran is ludicrous.

      The US has been signalling a desire to attack Iran for at least 2 years now, when one of Trump's first acts as president was to break an agreement between the US and Iran over Iran's attempts to get nuclear weapons and the US basically stealing billions of dollars worth of assets from Iran. And of course the US's BFF Israel has been specifically calling for attacks on Iran for about a decade, and there have been covert actions that killed Iranian scientists and caused the Stuxnet worm. Oh, and National Security Advisor John Bolton was the same guy who lied the US into war with Iraq over nothing at all officially, and appointing him made the intent pretty clear.

      I hope they're at least paying you decently.

      --
      The only thing that stops a bad guy with a compiler is a good guy with a compiler.
      • (Score: 2) by Phoenix666 on Thursday June 20 2019, @09:46PM (1 child)

        by Phoenix666 (552) on Thursday June 20 2019, @09:46PM (#858238) Journal

        The NeoCons have wanted to go to war with Iran for a long time. Project for a New American Century used to have it up on the front page of their web site. Dick Cheney and Wolfowitz and Perle and the schmuck who was the Secretary of Defense, Rumsfeld, were all members of PNAC. When they ginned up the pretext to invade Iraq, the butch saying making the rounds in DC at the time was, "Everyone wants to go to Bagdad. Real men want to go to Tehran."

        I think we should carpet bomb the place with members of PNAC and the MIC in place of actual munitions. Let their splatting upon that soil send a message down through the ages through future members of organizations like PNAC and the MIC.

        --
        Washington DC delenda est.
        • (Score: 2) by deimtee on Friday June 21 2019, @02:45AM

          by deimtee (3272) on Friday June 21 2019, @02:45AM (#858395) Journal

          I think we should carpet bomb the place with members of PNAC and the MIC in place of actual munitions.

          Given the Muslim aversion to pork, that might be more effective than you think.

          --
          If you cough while drinking cheap red wine it really cleans out your sinuses.
      • (Score: 1, Troll) by realDonaldTrump on Friday June 21 2019, @05:58AM

        by realDonaldTrump (6614) on Friday June 21 2019, @05:58AM (#858458) Homepage Journal

        Iran has been trying to go Nuclear, that's so true. And the One Sided Deal wasn't slowing them down at all. So I got very tough with them.

        And, John. I'll tell you about John. I have John Bolton and other people that are a little more dovish than him. John, unfortunately, is always trying to get me into a war. But, he's not the boss. I am!!!!

  • (Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Thursday June 20 2019, @06:48PM (1 child)

    No, it wouldn't. Idiot. It's far too thin an excuse for war even if we wanted one. Nobody back home cares if they broke our toy airplane, so it's massively insufficient pretext.

    --
    My rights don't end where your fear begins.
    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday June 22 2019, @03:13PM

      by Anonymous Coward on Saturday June 22 2019, @03:13PM (#858857)

      Sure you're not a robot?