Aerospace
Forces Brigadier General Amir Ali Hajizadeh, commander
of
the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps, speaks to one of those
under
his command alongside a captured U.S. RQ-170 Sentinel
drone
aircraft operated by the CIA, Tehran, Dec. 8.
Fars News Agency, Islamic
Republic of Iran
Revolutionary
Guards Proudly Display Downed American Drone
As has been admitted by the United
States that last week, a very sophisticated and valuable unmanned CIA spy drone
was captured intact by Iranian forces. According to this news item from Iran's
state-run Fars News Agency, Iran's Revolutionary Guard Corp. downed the
craft in a 'cyber attack' and is considering Chinese and Russian requests to examine
it and presumably help back-engeneer it..
One of America's most prized pieces of high-techinogy on display in Iran: How serious is the loss of a CIA RQ-170 unmanned drone? According to American and Israeli sources - extremely serious, particlarly if the unit failed to erase its programming and the data it had collected, as Tehran asserts.
TEHRAN: On Thursday, Iran's
state broadcaster released the first images of a highly-advanced U.S. stealth
spy drone, which was downed thanks to a cyber attack by Iranian military forces
last week as it flew over the nation's airspace.
According to the report
[video below], the width of the RQ-170 Sentinel drone from wing-to-wing is
around 85 feet, with a length of almost 15 feet and a height of six feet.
The drone is equipped with
highly-sophisticated surveillance, data gathering capability, electronic
communication and radar, the report said.
The batwing-shaped, radar-evading
aircraft can be fitted with various sensor payloads, which means they can be
equipped to capture a range of intelligence material, including high-resolution
images, radiation measurements and air samples.
U.S. officials and Western
diplomats say that the stealth drone was part of a fleet of secret aircraft that
the Central Intelligence Agency has used to escalate its campaign of espionage
against Iran's nuclear facilities for the past several years.
The aircraft, built by
Lockheed Martin, is best known for its role surveilling the compound where
Osama bin Laden was killed in Pakistan. "But it wasn't only being flown in
Pakistan," one former Western official said.
During the last few years, Iran
has already shot down over a dozen such aircraft.
U.S. officials have described
the loss of the craft to Iran as a setback and even fatal blow to the stealth
drone program.
Among America's main concerns
is that Iran could use this intact aircraft to expose the vulnerabilities in its
stealth technology and take air defense countermeasures. Another worry is that
China or some other U.S. adversary could help Iran extract data from the drone
that would reveal its flight history, surveillance targets and other
capabilities.
In the event of malfunction the
drone was programmed to destroy such data, but it failed to do so. The blow is
so heavy that U.S. officials still don't want to accept that Iran brought the
plane down in a cyber attack. Instead, explanations have focused on potential
technical failures. The aircraft cover great distances and depend on satellite
links. A lost connection or other malfunction could cause them to return
home or self-destruct.
Revolutionary Guard Commander in Drone
Aerospace Forces Brigadier
General Amir Ali Hajizadeh, commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps
(IRGC), appeared in the televised to explain how Iranian forces downed the highly
advanced radar-evading spy drone.
Posted
by WORLDMEETS.US
"Recently, the intelligence
we collected along with precise electronic monitoring revealed that this
aircraft intended to infiltrate our nation's airspace for spying missions,"
the general said, adding, "After it entered the eastern parts of the country,
the aircraft fell into a trap set by our armed forces and was downed inside
Iran with minimal damage. …
Aerospace
Forces Brigadier General Amir Ali Hajizadeh, commander
of
the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps, speaks to one of those
under
his command alongside a captured CIA RQ-170 Sentinel drone
"As far as its platform
and coating, this type of aircraft is designed to evade radar and in terms of technology,
is amongst the most advanced aircraft used by the United States," General Hajizadeh
said. "The technology used in this aircraft had also been used in the B-2 Stealth Bomber and F-35 fighter aircraft,"
Hajizadeh said, and added, "This aircraft is controlled and guided through
satellite link and land stations in Afghanistan and the United States. Military
experts are well aware how precious the technological information of this drone
is," he reiterated.
Current and former U.S.
defense officials said that not even the U.S. military is equipped to use these
highly-sophisticated stealth planes. They are in relatively short supply and are
only flown by the CIA.
The existence of the aircraft
has been known since 2009, when one was photographed at the main U.S. airfield
in Kandahar, Afghanistan.
Meanwhile, an informed Iranian
military source has said that Russian and Chinese officials have asked to
inspect the drone aircraft.
