Iran Using Swarms of UAVs to Confuse U.S. Radars?

February 27, 2012. David Pugliese Defence Watch

The Lexington Institute, sometimes described as a conservative think-tank, is reporting this:

Military sources say that Iran has begun to harass the ground-based air defenses of the U.S. Army and allies in the Persian Gulf region using swarms of unmanned aircraft. The aircraft, which appear to be of Chinese design or origin, are typically launched to exploit the operating pattern of U.S. radars. They can fly beneath or around the limited coverage area of radars currently deployed in neighboring states, and their flight characteristics make them difficult to classify. On at least one occasion, they were mistaken for birds because of their slow speed and small radar cross section.

Iran has long been known to operate antiship cruise missiles of Chinese and Russian origin, and on occasion has threatened to use them to close the strategic Strait of Hormuz through which much of the world’s oil is transported. The new threat may be an outgrowth of Iran’s relations with nations possessing advanced cruise-missile technology, however it raises difficult questions for the U.S. Army. Over the last two years, Army leaders decided to cancel several next-generation air defense programs because anticipated threats from cruise missiles and other airborne systems had not materialized as expected

http://www.lexingtoninstitute.org/iranian-unmanned-aircraft-signal-new-threat?a=1&c=1171