The 3 Most Absurd Military Hoaxes By Iran | World Defense

The 3 Most Absurd Military Hoaxes By Iran

BLACKEAGLE

SENIOR MEMBER
Joined
Dec 5, 2014
Messages
3,623
Reactions
1,989 10 0
Country
Jordan
Location
Jordan
How do rogue states compete with a superpower? Photoshop, apparently.

By Kelsey D. Atherton Posted April 2, 2013


ShoopedMissile1.jpg


Iranian Missile Test, 2008

Sepah News

The first, the best. In early July 2008, Sepah News, the media arm of the Iran's Revolutionary Guards, released a photo of four missiles being launched. The image soon graced the fronta pages of several major newspapers. Skeptics thought something was odd and immediately began picking apart the failed photoshop attempt involved. A cursory look at the original photo revealed that the third rocket from the left was exactly the same down to the exhaust trail as the second rocket, and the cloud of smoke beneath it was copy-pasted from the smoke on the right. This was the military equivalent of disguising a "D" on a report card as an "A," and jokers across the internet had a field day poking fun at what Iran surely hoped was as intimidating show of force. Soon, collections of parody photoshopped images found their way around the internet. Why fake it? First, the media fell for it, which means that even though the hoax was revealed, western media was culpable for running the story without fact-checking it. Everyone left this exchange with a bit of egg on their face. More importantly, the missile launch was digitally edited because one of the missiles failed, and failure to launch is always a little embarrassing. The missiles tested were long-range Shabab-3s, and a successful test would be a nice scary show of force. But a just mostly-successful launch? Policy makers and analysts would immediately turn to discussing technological failure, and the big scary message is undermined. Of course, that also happens when an image is revealed to have been edited, but at least Iran got a good news cycle before game was up.
 

BLACKEAGLE

SENIOR MEMBER
Joined
Dec 5, 2014
Messages
3,623
Reactions
1,989 10 0
Country
Jordan
Location
Jordan
koker%201%20drone.jpg


Iranian Koker 1 Drone, 2012

Mehr News Agency

In early November 2012, Iranian media reported on a new vertical takeoff and landing drone, called the Koker-1. Only one teensy problem--the only proof of its existence was a really lazy Photoshop job. As recounted by the Atlantic Wirehere, the image looks almost identical to a picture of a drone from Chiba University in Japan. Whoops. Why fake it? I could guess about fancy trick reasons, like antagonizing the United States right after an election, but Occam's Razor is probably right here. Iran released an edited image of a drone because they didn't have the drone, and the Iranian government really, really wanted to scare people into thinking they did.
 

BLACKEAGLE

SENIOR MEMBER
Joined
Dec 5, 2014
Messages
3,623
Reactions
1,989 10 0
Country
Jordan
Location
Jordan
Qahar-13_0.jpg


Iranian Stealth Fighter, 2013

Khouz News

In February this year, Iran released photos of a brand-new stealth fighter called the Qaher-313. With slick lines and a modern shape, it looked like a remarkable feat of technological progress...until someone stood next to it, and it appeared to be about 75 percent the size of a working plane. Or until someone watched this video, purportedly of the Qaher-313 in flight, but probably just a remote-control plane:

Video of _7Aynt78r00
Besides those two dead giveaways, there is this picture, where the Qaher-313 conveniently flies over a mountain at the exact same angle as a stock photo. Why fake it? For starters, Iran was able to get this awesome headline from Business Insider: "Iran's New Qaher 313 Stealth Fighter Would Be Perfect For Attacking The US Navy," which is true except for the fact that the fighter almost certainly doesn't work and so would be terrible at any task requiring it to, well, work. Here, too, there is a bit of deception. Iran doesn't need stealth fighters or flashy technology to attack the U.S. Navy. Instead, simple small fast boats combined with regular cruise missiles and underwater mines will do the job far better than a fancy stealth fighter. Thanks to this, it doesn't matter than Iran's fancy stealth fighter doesn't work - all it has to do is scare the U.S. into preparing for a threat it will never face.
The 6 Most Absurd Military Hoaxes By North Korea And Iran | Popular Science
 

Scorpion

THINK TANK: SENIOR
Joined
Nov 27, 2014
Messages
3,868
Reactions
3,197 56 0
Country
Saudi Arabia
Location
Saudi Arabia
Lol @ Iran advanced achievements turned out to be photoshop. Im not fooled by them at least but I feel sorry for the average Iranian blindly believing that his country has scored some points in the military industry.
 
Top