WASHINGTON: President Barack Obama on Monday acknowledged a US drone was in Iranian hands for the first time and said the United States has asked Tehran to return the sophisticated spycraft.
“We’ve asked for it back. We’ll see how the Iranians respond,” Obama said at a news conference with Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki. It was the first open confirmation by the Obama administration that Iran was in possession of the drone, which Tehran says it brought down as the plane was flying over the country’s territory.Obama, however, shed no further light on the plane’s mission or why it failed to return to a base in Afghanistan. “With respect to the drone inside of Iran, I’m not going to comment on intelligence matters that are classified,” he said. The bat-winged RQ-170 Sentinel, designed to evade radar for surveillance flights, was on a CIA mission when it went missing, US officials, speaking anonymously, have said previously. The episode has handed Iran a propaganda coup and Iranian state television has shown images of a robotic aircraft that experts say resembles the Sentinel.
Meanwhile, Iran will reverse-engineer the US drone it has in its possession, and is in the “final stages” of unlocking the aircraft’s software secrets, the head of Iran’s parliamentary national security committee said on Monday. “Our next action will be to reverse-engineer the aircraft,” Parviz Sorouri said, according to the website of Iranian state television. “In the near future, we will be able to mass produce it… Iranian engineers will soon build an aircraft superior to the American (drone) using reverse-engineering,” he was quoted as saying.
Iran says it captured the sophisticated US drone, a bat-winged stealthy RQ-170 Sentinel, on December 4 as it was flying in its airspace. It claimed a Revolutionary Guards cyber-warfare unit hacked the aircraft’s flight controls, and it presented what it said was the drone on state television on Thursday. US officials, who reportedly said the drone was flying a CIA mission over Iran, have expressed scepticism that Iran has the technology to perform such a hacking feat. They said it was more likely the drone suffered a malfunction. They have also cast doubts over Iran’s ability to replicate the drone — at least without the help of Russia or China. “US capabilities are remarkably advanced, and it’s unclear that the Iranians have the expertise” to exploit the advanced know-how in the aircraft, a US official speaking to AFP on condition of anonymity said last week.
Iran should immediately return the drone and apologize to US for having it for so long.
Was just wondering what Obama was smoking when he asked Iran to return the drone.
That said I seriously doubt the claim of the Iranians that they would reverse engineer the drone and start mass production of better quality drones.
There was an article in NYtimes .. .few days ago. .claiming flights from Moscow & Beijing are full with UAV experts.
Russian/China can pay any price to get the certain parts from it.
Obama asking for the drone back is political grandstanding. I'm sure Obama must have scoffed at first when his political aides told him he should publicly demand the drones back.
I'm not even sure how much super secret technology is in those drones. If it's really that valuable, I don't think the US would have thousands of those things flying all over the world.
I agree ... it is a simple craft ... drones are designed to be perishable - the real technology is in manned, armed to the teeth aircraft ...
This "making a molehill into a mountain" is designed to put Iran in bad light to justify help justify firmer action without kickbacks.
i think the drone itself is not very advance or super secret, it didnt do very well in terms of stealthy function, but the fact that the signals were compromised and hacked, something got decoded which must have been in use by USA in other areas of military communication, this must be a nightmare for USA.
While i must give credits to the iranians for downing/recovering the aircraft in one piece , i dont think it is some very high tech super secret technology. it is just a recon drone with no weapons. drone tech is not all that complicated, even relatively low tech countries like india and pakistan have some pretty good ones.
the drone is just a part of a big system which is still safe with americans.
no doubt it is a good PR for iran and a slap on the face of tech-super power america but it is nothing more than that.
^ by the way when i said its not very advance i didnt mean its cheap. its still one of the most high altitude drone out there, with smallest (near to none) radar signature, with very good communication/ relaying features. no doubt its a bounty for iran.
The importance is not the drone itself. It is the information on the drone and the IT stuff. That is what is important and Obama seriously must have been smoking some stuff thinking that Iran would just hand it over.
