“The GH (Global Hawk) is the world’s biggest drone system. We are talking about a flying data hoover, filled with high tech equipment. This is a hugely expensive system,” Ulrike E Franke, an expert in German foreign and defense Policy, UAVs/drones, revolutions in military affairs and military technology, wrote on her Twitter page on Thursday.
“Of course, losing an expensive drone is not the same as losing the pilot(s) of a manned system. But this isn’t a throwaway drone whose loss the US will just shrug off,” she added.
Franke added that the drone was specifically designed to be largely invulnerable – because it flies to extremely high, noting, “Losing this Triton/Global Hawk hence hurts the US quite a lot. And (again, speaking as drone scholar, not geopolitical commentator here) depending on the exact circumstances, this incident may also hurt exports of the system.”
The Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) in a statement on Thursday disclosed details about the shooting down of a US spy drone near the Strait of Hormuz, stressing that it was downed after violating Iranian airspace over the Southern coasts.
The Global Hawk is the biggest #drone in use in the world (see the comparison I did for an @ecfr publication a while back). ?
Not only is it big, the Global Hawk also flies very high – and is thus supposed to be very difficult to shoot down. pic.twitter.com/zU6q3ztYv3— Ulrike Franke (@RikeFranke) June 20, 2019
Why is this shot-down of a US Triton/Global Hawk #drone by #Iran a big deal *from a drone scholar point of view*?
1. The GH is the world's biggest drone system. We are talking about a flying "data hoover", filled w/ high tech equipment –> This is a hugely expensive system.— Ulrike Franke (@RikeFranke) June 20, 2019
Of course, losing an expensive #drone is not the same as losing the pilot(s) of a manned system. But this isn't a throwaway drone whose loss the US will just shrug off.
2. This drone was specifically designed to be largely invulnerable – because it flies to extremely high.— Ulrike Franke (@RikeFranke) June 20, 2019
Losing this Triton/Global Hawk hence hurts the US quite a lot. And (again, speaking as drone scholar, not geopolitical commentator here) depending on the exact circumstances, this incident may also hurt exports of the system.
— Ulrike Franke (@RikeFranke) June 20, 2019
