Iran to build copy of captured US drone, official says

[WestVirginiaRebel]

Fox News:

TEHRAN, Iran – Iran claimed Sunday that it had reverse-engineered an American spy drone captured by its armed forces last year and has begun building a copy.

Gen. Amir Ali Hajizadeh, chief of the aerospace division of the powerful Revolutionary Guards, related what he said were details of the aircraft's operational history to prove his claim that Tehran's military experts had extracted data from the U.S. RQ-170 Sentinel captured in December in eastern Iran, state television reported.

Among the drone's past missions, he said, was surveillance of the compound in northwest Pakistan in which Usama Bin Laden lived and was killed.

Tehran has flaunted the capture of the Sentinel, a top-secret surveillance drone with stealth technology, as a victory for Iran and a defeat for the United States in a complicated intelligence and technological battle.

U.S. officials have acknowledged losing the drone. They have said Iran will find it hard to exploit any data and technology aboard it because of measures taken to limit the intelligence value of drones operating over hostile territory.

Hajizadeh told state television that the captured surveillance drone is a "national asset" for Iran and that he could not reveal full technical details. But he did provide some samples of the data that he claimed Iranian experts had recovered.

"There is almost no part hidden to us in this aircraft. We recovered part of the data that had been erased. There were many codes and characters. But we deciphered them by the grace of God," Hajizadeh said.

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The Iranian government would like to thank the Obama administration for its assistance in providing them with the drone...

[raygun]

Builds a copy, builds a copy, buklds a copy, builds a copy, builds a copy....

 

Damn IT!

 

Ah for crying out loud! BUILD MY ASS!

 

[raygun]

573236main_iss028e018218_full by wxman1, on Flickr

[raygun]

That's the last U.S.A. Space Shuttle going down...

[Rokke]

Amusing. Not that they have our drone. But that they claim they've been able to reverse engineer it. Even if they could, they don't have the technology to operate it in a useful way. In fact, it would probably be incredibly useful for us if they tried. Nothing like knowing what the enemy is trying to spy on to help you know where their weaknesses are. This is a funny quote..."There were many codes and characters. But we deciphered them by the grace of God." Sounds like they recovered a repair manual stashed in the drone. All military aircraft keep them on board so maintainers can log problems. They are paper forms you fill out in pencil. Very high tech.

[RandyM]

Maybe we should build another "drone" and "lose" it over Iran.... a drone that, when reverse-engineered, would eliminate Iran.

[Rokke]

Maybe we should build another "drone" and "lose" it over Iran.... a drone that, when reverse-engineered, would eliminate Iran.

Not a bad idea. We could call it the Obama drone. Something that once it gets inside their system would currupt every part of their government and military and bring their whole country to a crashing fall.