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Syria-Lebanon-Iran
Iran to shoot down 'flying objects' near nuclear facilities
2004-12-26
TEHRAN: Iran's air force has been ordered to shoot down any unidentified or suspicious flying objects in Iran's airspace, an air force spokesman said on Saturday, amid state-media reports of sightings of flying objects near Iran's nuclear installations. "All anti-aircraft units and jet fighters have been ordered to shoot down the flying objects over Iran's airspace," spokesman of the Regular Army Air Force Colonel Salman Mahini said.
I'll bet the Iranian AA forces are almost as good as the ones Sammy had.
Is it duck season again already? Hope Khameini forgot to renew his permit this year.
Flying object fever has gripped Iran after dozens of reported sightings in the summer and in recent weeks. State-run media has reported sightings of unidentified objects flying over parts of Iran where nuclear facilities are located. "The unidentified flying objects could be satellites, comets or spying or reconnaissance crafts trying to monitor Iran's nuclear installations," Mahini said. "Flights of unknown objects in the country's airspace have increased in recent weeks ... (they) have been seen over Bushehr and Isfahan provinces," the Resalat newspaper reported on Saturday.
"Krazglek! The Earthlings are becoming more aggressive!"
Posted by:Fred

#32  Would be nice to have the flying objects shoot back.
Posted by: Wo   2004-12-26 8:33:40 PM  

#31  Install a koran in each of our recon drones/cruise missiles. Give the mullahs a dilemma. Shoot at the koran delivery system and commit a sacriledge in the eyes of their moon god or watch us buzz their bomb factories. There's nothing that says we can't have fun in this little war.
Posted by: ed   2004-12-26 8:07:22 PM  

#30  SPOD-- I'm sure there are very literate, intelligent Iranians. However, Regimes like the Mullahocracy are extremely uncomfortabe with Intelligent, Motivated individuals having access to any kinds of weapons. Of such people are revolutionary leadership cadres made.

Such regimes want loyal, motivated troops who have no doubts about the nature of their masters, and who won't be asking awkward questions at inconvienent moments. Kinda precludes anyone who can get the maximum performance out of 1970s-1980s vintage air defense gear.

While I doubt the iranian Basaji are quite as bad (military performance wise) as the saddamite Iraqi army, it is important to recall that the Islamic republic did not do too well against sadam in the 1980's. And I suspect that they have not gotten much better since then, as they have not fought too many major wars since then.


Posted by: N Guard   2004-12-26 7:51:12 PM  

#29  I'm pretty sure the Blackbird wasn't retired without a replacement vehicle ready to enter the inventory. I've heard all the rumors, from Aurora to Project 97, but no hard information. The only thing I know for sure is that the US has been spending a lot of money in a lot of different places that don't show up in the Senate Budget Report. "Spiked News" had an interesting article a couple of days ago about "possible" military development of maglev aircraft. On the other hand, it could be the Ylau from Beta Omicron looking for a safer beach than PhuKet.
Posted by: Old Patriot   2004-12-26 5:53:47 PM  

#28  "The unidentified flying objects could be satellites,comets..." COMETS??? WTF? Forget Area 51 and Aurora and Blackbirds,I want to know when we started building recon Comets. I also want some of the super Iranian carrots that let their people see satellites from the ground.
On Strategy Page there is article on Global Hawk UAVs and it gives them a cruising altitude of 60,000ft. Hmmmm...
And it will be of no help to US for Iran to start turning on all their AD radars. Nope,wouldn't be of any use at all.
Posted by: Stephen   2004-12-26 5:48:00 PM  

#27  God in Heaven Tom! Is that Timbre Wind?

Jeeezooo Pete. That's funny.

Did ya see up threat where poor little Me got pulled into the Deep Blue Screaming Teal Inlet?

Damn.... There's still 10 born every minutes.
Posted by: Shipman   2004-12-26 5:47:18 PM  

#26  I offer this for your consideration. I can say no more.
Posted by: Tom   2004-12-26 4:16:13 PM  

#25  SPOD - not as educated as you might think - most of the western-oriented-education grads have fled. In addition, to a regime like the mullahs, education is a threat. They thrive on the Islamic fervor of the poor and uneducated, or did...that support's gone
Posted by: Frank G   2004-12-26 2:33:50 PM  

#24  Large R.C. foil coated paper airplanes dropped from a considerable hight outside of Iranian airspace just to panic the MM and the revolutionary guards.

N. Guard I would fully expect the operators to be well educated. Iran has a surplus of well educated persons. Persians are not dumb camel herds. I also would not expect to find just old soviet era ground based radar. I can think of certain nations in Europe who would have been happy to provide them with better electronics.
Posted by: Sock Puppet of Doom   2004-12-26 2:27:56 PM  

#23  Iran to shoot down ‘flying objects’ near nuclear facilities

Then now's the time to begin catapulting Iranian mullahs over their nuke sites.

PULL!
Posted by: Zenster   2004-12-26 2:16:55 PM  

#22  Nooooo, that's not Santa we're going to drop down those chimneys.
Posted by: Tom   2004-12-26 1:52:17 PM  

#21  Santa?
Posted by: Capt America   2004-12-26 1:47:55 PM  

#20  The moral of the story:

Going buzzing overhead, but bring Hellcats.
Posted by: Capt America   2004-12-26 1:40:40 PM  

#19  "Yeah.I'm sure we will get the scoop on the entire US spy plane fleet from Rantburgers...LMFAO!!"

Naturally, me. Loose Lips 'R US. Supporting the public's right to know and all:


Squadron insignia of hitherto top secret US spyplane unit (Rantburg exclusive)


Latest supersecret spyplane departs New York with Mothership for illegal sortie over Iran. (Courtesy SeeBS News)
Posted by: Atomic Conspiracy   2004-12-26 12:18:03 PM  

#18  Yer welcome,Frank.
Posted by: Me   2004-12-26 11:05:44 AM  

#17  Poor, poor Me. Laughed your fucking ass off and built a strawman, "entire US spy plane fleet". Wouldn't you like something other than straw in your diet - or is that all that asses eat? Well, luckily for you, there was plenty of ass remaining, hence your post. HAND.
Posted by: .com   2004-12-26 11:00:03 AM  

#16  thanks for your input, asshat
Posted by: Frank G   2004-12-26 10:58:00 AM  

#15  Yeah.I'm sure we will get the scoop on the entire US spy plane fleet from Rantburgers...LMFAO!!
Posted by: Me   2004-12-26 10:45:30 AM  

#14  .com wasn't it 2 BBirds that were taken out of moth balls? I doubt they use them over Iran, except maybe to give the Turbines an extra twist by getting a peek at them, perhaps in a shallow incursion. >)

This is a job for Misty, Aurora, Timbre Wind, Screaming Deep Blue Teal and Avner Cohen (who has a web cam across the street from Mullah Central)
Posted by: Shipman   2004-12-26 9:38:57 AM  

#13  lol!
Posted by: Frank G   2004-12-26 9:34:27 AM  

#12  Usually my problem is that the keyboard won't do letter doubles, not doing them unintentionally. Preview is my friend.
Posted by: Mrs. Davis   2004-12-26 9:32:57 AM  

#11  poopcorn? I'll pass
Posted by: Frank G   2004-12-26 9:23:53 AM  

#10  Please pass the poopcorn, extra buttery.
Posted by: Mrs. Davis   2004-12-26 9:06:38 AM  

#9  A confrontation with these dirty bastards in one shape or form is imminent. The Mullahs have been lucky so far, they know we are busy with their neighbors on both sides. Counting down the days ............................................................................
Posted by: tex   2004-12-26 8:45:44 AM  

#8  First of all, the most likely thing they are seeing/shooting at are sensor ghosts. Take a nervous leadership (Gee, why are they nervous?), add semi-literate Basiji(sp?) in charge of/operating "sensitive" site defenses with antiquated/poorly maintained/soviet quality manufactured radars, and you will lots of shooting at sensor ghosts.

Second likelyest probability: UAV recon. IIRC during southrn watch in Iraq, there were lots o' uav activity, and the Iraqi AD shot at the drones alot, but did not manage to connect too often. And frankly, we did not care if they shot down a drone or two. I remember seeing a vidio clip of a SA-something launch at a predator. The UAV survived. Not very impressive performance by the AD guys.

SMN, Its very unlikely a manned platform would be allowed to stray too far into Iran airspace. Uavs, or UCAVs(heh!) on the other hand...
Posted by: N Guard   2004-12-26 7:51:32 AM  

#7  Send in the IDF foo fighters to fook up the Ayatollahs nuclear weapons program. Islamic like to create chaos on the kufr's fixed targets. Now it's time to do unto them.

This is a big fat sitting duck. Waste it.
Posted by: dennisw   2004-12-26 5:44:02 AM  

#6  If they had been SR-71's they'd be on the ground at Beale and the pilots having coffee by the time the missiles or aircraft reached the reported altitude, assuming they could get there at all. The number of missiles fired at Blackbirds must number in the thousands, by now.

How many were brought out of retirement? I hear NASA has 2 or 3, but none are doing military recon anymore -- anyone got the scoop?
Posted by: .com   2004-12-26 4:24:40 AM  

#5  ordered to shoot down any unidentified or suspicious flying objects in Iran’s airspace

I sure hope all their civilian aircraft have working transponders onboard. If was an airliner pilot, I'd be weary.
Posted by: Rafael   2004-12-26 1:01:17 AM  

#4  GWB also isn't Carter. If the mullahs haven't figured that out, they will about one day after they take hostages.
Posted by: Steve White   2004-12-26 12:38:18 AM  

#3  I don't know SW, I suspect Iran may try to copy the Chinese reaction (after the downed EP3 surveillance plane incident)to a manned downed aircraft. If they do take 'hostages' just as the Chinese did, or for that matter, such as they did in the late 70's during the 500+ day hostage ordeal, I'm afraid they may use that 'leverage' to lean "W" over a barrel!
Posted by: smn   2004-12-26 12:36:33 AM  

#2  GWB isn't Eisenhower. If the Iranians down a US recon airplane, expect a fair number of mullahs to see a bright, shining light in the heavens for a very brief moment of time.
Posted by: Steve White   2004-12-26 12:23:02 AM  

#1  By directly challenging the 'fly overs', Iran may get lucky and down one of whatever they are, for their own propaganda purposes (remember the Francis Gary Powers incident with the U2!!). The US and Israel must be cautious now...this ups the ante!
Posted by: smn   2004-12-26 12:18:17 AM  

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