Either that or the drone was considered low-value enough not to even merit having access to the P codes.

If it didn't have P code access, chances are likely there isn't much of real value for the Iranian reverse engineers.

You don't have to crack the encryption. You can just record and playback the signals from the satellites, with appropriate time delays, at an intensity several orders of magnitude higher than the drone would receive the signals from the satellites.

Several years? Try since the CIA overthrew the civilian government of Iran in 1953. And the Iranians haven't been sitting quietly and taking it like a victim. There is plenty of evidence that Iranian resources were being used to train and supply insurgents in Iraq and Palestine.

Iran was innocent when the CIA first got involved but these days they are playing the game with the big boys and getting what they deserve (as is the CIA).

10.

If there was only 1 cheating husband, his wife would see no one else kicking someone out, so would kick on day 1.

If there were 2, both their wives would only see one other cheating husband, but neither would see him get kicked out on day one and deduce that there must be 2 cheaters, and the second must be their husband.

Repeat.

http://puzzles.nigelcoldwell.co.uk/nine.htm

You answered your own question. War isn't a means to an end anymore. War is the end itself. Ike is rolling in his grave.

Inertial navigation systems need reference points to prevent huge drifts over time. This is especially a problem if the aircraft flies relatively straight at the same speed for a long time -- accelerometers won't be able to detect slight changes in course. Like you said, GPS is often used to provide the reference points to attenuate drift. If the GPS system is wrong, then the inertial nav system is also going to be fooled.

Why are you so gullible to believe that this story is factual or the Iran Engineer even works for the government and is not making it up? The loss of GPS is already anticipated in American aircraft and weaponry since the cold war. The Soviet Union routinely jammed GPS in areas like North Korea. Hell LightSquared jams GPS with a WiFI broadcast, its nothing new. That's why since the 80s missiles use terrain mapping to either continue to the target or leave the jamming area. Once GPS is lost planes and missiles can use TERCOM or INS how did the Iranians get by that?
The tomahawk missile has been around since the 80s and has this tech.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LightSquared#Interference_issues

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TERCOM

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inertial_guidance

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tomahawk_(missile)

The old/new coke thing is when they phased in high fructose corn syrup instead of sugar.

The delay gave everyone long enough to forget what it was supposed to taste like...

Mexican coke still has sugar in it, and is best for mixed drinks. :)

Asking for "Mexican Coke" at Kroger's can give unexpected results, lol.

The theory wasn't entirely unsound. Nearly every air to air victory in the past decade has been via missile.

The problem was that during Vietnam, as many as half of the missiles didn't even ignite - they just fell to the ground inert. Of those that lit, fewer than half did anything other than fly in a straight line. And even if you had one a missile whose engine lit, the guidance tracked, and it was near the target - it's all for nothing if the explosives don't detonate. Pilots often ripple-fired 4-6 missiles at once, in the hope that one would work.

The reliability gained by almost 50 years of air to air missile development since Vietnam has changed the situation considerably.

You're putting a lot of trust in a propaganda piece from a country with a perfectly reasonable score to settle. At this point, I'd say the Iranians are (and should be) playing the propaganda for all they can, espescially on the home front.

If you look at propaganda from the past century, you'd notice that the pattern is similar: Make a claim that "your team" outsmarted the enemy, and that's the reason for an event. It's pure BS, but that doesn't mean it won't play well for your allies and at the homefront.

These drones aren't purpose-designed to spy on low-tech countries. They're designed to be able to go into far more advanced countries (ie. Russia and China) that are more than capable of toying with GPS, and in fact, where altering and jamming GPS is expected.

Electronic warfare is 70+ years old at this point, and the questionable reliability of radio signals (espescially in the face of jamming) are well known. Being able to complete your mission with massive radio jamming is a requirement for anything that flies for the US military, and has been for generations.

We don't know whether the drone had inertial navigation or not - given the size and cost involved, there's no reason it shouldn't have inertial navigation - in fact, I find it hard to believe it doesn't use INS. US cruise and ballistic missiles use INS, as do warplanes - specifically because it's well-known that GPS can't be counted on.

If the drone does have INS (as well as terrain mapping, or both which is what I suspect), it's extremely unlikely that the Iranian story has even a hint of truth to it.

That’s why I dont' believe it. Were it less comedic, I'd have no trouble with the story.

It's great political theatre, but it doesn't line up with what I know about the technologies involved. I've built robots for the military. While gimmicking GPS is doable, it's only a piece of the puzzle - and one that can be easily gamed. It makes for great propaganda, but it overlooks the other systems that have to be onboard for the thing to fly.

Drones have multiple independent means of determining its location, because GPS can't be counted on in a full-on war; it's one of the first things to fall in electronic warfare. INS is cheap, has been used for decades, and still is used because it can't be messed with externally. Terrain mapping is relatively new, but is also cheap to implement, and one of the drone's missions is to scan the terrain (with millimeter band radar).

So unless the Iranians somehow found a way to externally modify INS, as well as shift large-scale sections (at least a hundred square miles) geography of the region in real-time, the GPS story just doesn't hold up.