ISAF Releases Statement on Missing Unmanned Aerial Vehicle, Dec 5, 2011

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[TD="colspan: 2"][B]KABUL, Afghanistan (December 4, 2011) –[/B] "The UAV to which the Iranians are referring may be a US unarmed reconnaissance aircraft that had been flying a mission over western Afghanistan late last week. The operators of the UAV lost control of the aircraft and had been working to determine its status."
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[URL]http://www.isaf.nato.int/article/isaf-releases/isaf-releases-statement-on-missing-unmanned-aerial-vehicle-dec-5-2011.html[/URL]

Confirmed by ISAF. So turns out, it was true......

[Fahrenheit]

To quote BigDumbAmerican [quote]Nah, not from a single lost drone. America loses drones all the time, it's just that most of the time its because of operator error. During my stay at the UAS training facility, we lost three drones to operator error (that I know of).

The first time was because a maintainer forgot to remove a critical pin from the launching mechanism, which essentially catapulted the UAS at high speeds nose-first into the ground (and this was during a presentation for some very high-ranking people).

The second occurred on landing; apparently the drone's altimeter was improperly set, causing it to hit the ground at a much faster speed than it should have.

The third was a result of a simple link-loss (extremely common) that was improperly handled. I'm not sure of the specifics, but the rumor mill had it that the bird simply flew into the side of a mountain while they were trying to regain control of it.

Point is, we lose way more drones to ourselves than we do to hostile targets, but it's okay. Drones are meant to be expendable. Obviously nobody's happy when one does bite the dust, but the cost of replacing a drone is minimal compared to the cost of training a new a pilot.[/quote]

Pretty much sums it up.

[Sexy Eskimo]

Either it's true.

Or

Oh no we "lost controll" over a UAV by "misstake".

[lukepker]

I knew they would say something like this.

[Jetblack357]

[QUOTE=Sexy Eskimo;33578616]Either it's true.

Or

Oh no we "lost controll" over a UAV by "misstake".[/QUOTE]

Read Fahrenheit's post. Its true.