Latest Breaking News
In reply to the discussion: Iran to 'reverse engineer' US drone [View all]Xithras
(16,191 posts)Some flight control firmware may be compromised, but it's pretty unlikely that any data of real consequence will be recoverable by the Iranians. Assuming that images are even stored onboard and are not immediately broadcast back to their base, any "stored" data would merely contain photos or videos of their own facilities. Given its route and location, I'm sure the Iranians already know what it was looking at.
The most sensitive bits of software are probably the flight control routines that keep the flying wing stable, and the software that controls its communication. The former is largely moot as many of the same routines can be found on the Internet (RC hobbyists are now building their own flying wings), and the latter probably stopped being an issue within a day of the crash. I'm sure the military changed any frequencies or authentication codes that were being used on this craft and shared with any other vehicles or systems.
The largest intelligence loss is related to the hardware, not the software. This loss provides the Iranians with the capability to reverse engineer their own versions.