Iran's Flying Saucer

[Luminus]

http://io9.com/#!5783425/iran-rounds-out-its-mad-scientist-air-calvary-with-zohal-the-flying-saucer

Well, I guess those UFO nuts weren't nuts after all.

 

[captcalhoun]

looks like one shot with an RPG7 would take it out...

and the flying boats linked at the end are even less threatening...

 

[Luminus]

You've gotta wonder how long they've been testing that one. I've seen that particular UFO design in one of those UFO documentaries over the decades.

 

[SPOCKED]

Don't mess with the Zohal!

 

[Australis]

Farnas Aerospace Company and Iranian Aviation and Space Industries Association (IASIA)

You're trying to tell me a eight century theocratic leadership and a nutbag dictator has two agencies like this, who can do this? Mmm. I have my doubts.

 

[Locutus of Bored]

My God, the Iranians have reverse engineered our most advanced top secret Walmart and Hobby Shack technology!

10 Megapixel camera?!
http://www.walmart.com/search/searc...constraint=0&search_query=10 megapixel camera

GPS?!
http://www.walmart.com/search/search-ng.do?search_query=gps&ic=48_0&Find=Find&search_constraint=0

[yt]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iMHIljepNAY[/yt]

[yt]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EYvTJnWrH2Q[/yt]

They've also stolen Adobe's classified Photoshop technology and used it to alter pictures before. I suspect the UFO is either Photoshopped or just a stock image, and regardless, by the press release's own strange admission it's small enough to fly "indoors," so it's at most a couple feet across.

By the way, the Iranian Students' New Agency released a completely different image of what it looks like:

http://www.isna.ir/ISNA/NewsView.aspx?ID=News-1736235&Lang=E

 

[Gepard]

^Honestly, the saucer looks CGI in the press photo. It appears to be an untextured and unshaded material lit with some backdrop-only radiosity. It's only because it's so blurry and grainy that it doesn't look even more fake.

 

[RJDiogenes]

Wow. What a breakthrough use of off-the-shelf technology. Word in the Intelligence Community is that this thing actually uses rechargeable batteries.

 

[Locutus of Bored]

It also comes with laser targeting, nightvision, stealth technology, and hunter-killer capability:

[yt]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TodweTnN7bE[/yt]

 

[M'Sharak]

^ Ooo, that's gonna leave a mark.

 

[RJDiogenes]

Oddly enough, Ahmadinejad sounds just like I expected.