Iran claims to have flown an unmanned aircraft copied from a Lockheed Martin RQ-170 Sentinel that crashed in that country in December 2011.
It plans to place four copies into service by the end of the Iranian
calendar year in March, the semi-official Fars News Agency (FNA) reported.
The Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) announced the first flight of a reverse engineered RQ-170 on November 10, and state-run television showed footage of the purported aircraft in flight. Brig. Gen. Amir Ali Hajizadeh, commander of the IRGC aerospace force, then declared that “at least four indigenized RQ-170 drones” will begin operations by next March, FNA said November 12.
The Iranian version of the unmanned surveillance aircraft “has been built through a combination of the U.S. designs and ideas and those of Iranian experts,” according to the report. Unlike the RQ-170, the Iranian aircraft will “have a bombing capability” and be used for both surveillance and strike missions, Hajizadeh said.
Lockheed Martin’s Skunk Works advanced development arm is thought to have developed the RQ-170 by around 2005, and the U.S. deployed the stealthy aircraft to Afghanistan by 2008. However, the U.S. Air Force did not officially acknowledge the program until December 2009.
The Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) announced the first flight of a reverse engineered RQ-170 on November 10, and state-run television showed footage of the purported aircraft in flight. Brig. Gen. Amir Ali Hajizadeh, commander of the IRGC aerospace force, then declared that “at least four indigenized RQ-170 drones” will begin operations by next March, FNA said November 12.
The Iranian version of the unmanned surveillance aircraft “has been built through a combination of the U.S. designs and ideas and those of Iranian experts,” according to the report. Unlike the RQ-170, the Iranian aircraft will “have a bombing capability” and be used for both surveillance and strike missions, Hajizadeh said.
Lockheed Martin’s Skunk Works advanced development arm is thought to have developed the RQ-170 by around 2005, and the U.S. deployed the stealthy aircraft to Afghanistan by 2008. However, the U.S. Air Force did not officially acknowledge the program until December 2009.
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