Iran Claims to Shoot Down Unmanned US Spy Drone, Threatens a ‘Strong and Crushing Response’

If true, the RQ-170 was likely detected because of a few apparent design omissions common to other aircraft intended to evade radar, namely an exhaust that is not shielded by the wing, notched landing gear and a lack of sharp edges. I’d still be curious, however, to know what Iran used to shoot down this UAV.  Though an expensive proposition (and doubtful), it’s also not out of the realm of possibility that this is precisely what the US military wanted the Iranians to do …

Update: U.S. official says no sign Iran shot down drone – “Iranian media reported on Sunday that their country’s military had shot down a U.S. reconnaissance drone in eastern Iran, but a U.S. official said there was no indication the aircraft had been shot down. NATO’s U.S.-led mission in neighbouring Afghanistan said the Iranian report could refer to an unarmed U.S. spy drone that went missing there last week.” Read more.

Iran’s claim didn’t state when the spy drone was “shot down”, so it may in fact be the one that the US military “lost” last week …

Update 2: U.S. Military Sources: Iran Has Missing U.S. Drone – “Iran appears to be in possession of one of America’s most sophisticated weapons, a super-secret spy plane whose stealth technology is the same as the drone used to monitor the compound during the raid that killed Usama bin Laden, U.S. military sources told Fox News on Monday. Military sources confirmed that the Iranians have the RQ-170 drone, which is so advanced that the U.S. Air Force has not distributed even a photo of it.” Read more.

Update 3: Iran displays downed UAV, now claims it ‘electronically hijacked’ it – “Iranian military officials have shown off an advanced US spy drone which they say was brought down by electronic warfare near the Afghan border. Images broadcast on Iranian TV showed Iranian military officials inspecting the radar-evading, wedge-shaped aircraft, which appeared to be undamaged. US officials have acknowledged the loss of the unmanned RQ-170 Sentinel, saying it malfunctioned near the Afghan border during a reconnaissance flight in western Afghanistan last week. But Iranian officials say an “electronic warfare unit” of the Revolutionary Guard electronically hijacked the drone and steered it to the ground.” Read more.

“TEHRAN, Iran—Iran’s armed forces shot down an unmanned U.S. spy plane that violated Iranian airspace along the country’s eastern border, the official IRNA news agency reported Sunday.

An unidentified military official quoted in the report warned of a strong and crushing response to any violations of the country’s airspace by American drone aircraft.

‘An advanced RQ-170 unmanned American spy plane was shot down by Iran’s armed forces. It suffered minor damage and is now in possession of Iran’s armed forces,’ IRNA quoted the official as saying.

No further details were published.” Read more.

The war against Iran’s nuclear program has already begun – “The war is under way, though no one declared it and no one will confirm it. This is the secret war against Iran’s nuclear project. It did not start this week or last month. It has been under way for years, but only faint echoes have reached the public. In June 2010, the press reported that the computer system operating the uranium enrichment centrifuges at Natanz had been infected with a virus. A deadly worm, known as Stuxnet, had infiltrated the controllers, manufactured by Siemens. Two weeks ago, a huge blast ripped through a Revolutionary Guards military base 40 kilometers west of Tehran. The explosion could be heard as far away as the capital. Dozens of people were killed, including the head of Iran’s missile development project, General Hassan Tehrani Moqaddam. This week, there was a powerful explosion in Isfahan, Iran’s third-largest city, which has a uranium conversion plant on its outskirts.” Read more.