Almost three years ago, Iran reportedly downed a US drone [5]. The RQ-170 Sentinel recon drone that was reportedly captured has apparently been reverse-engineered, and now, as Reuters reports [6], Iran state news agency IRNA reports the drone-clone has taken its first flight. Iran's Supreme Leader noted, "Today is a very sweet and unforgettable day for me." Of course, this 'news' should be taken with a modest pinch of salt but, as with everything in foreign policy these days, Brigadier General Ali Hajizadeh states that "a film of the flight will be released soon."
[7]
The clip of the downed drone from 2011...
and in 2013, Iran managed to hack some of the footage from the captured drone... [8]
And today, Reuters reports, [6]
An Iranian copy of a U.S. reconnaissance drone captured in 2011 has taken its first flight, state news agency IRNA reported on Monday.
In December 2011, Iran said it had captured a U.S. RQ-170 Sentinel reconnaissance drone in eastern Iran that had been reported lost by U.S. forces in neighboring Afghanistan.
"We promised that a model of RQ-170 would fly in the second half of the year, and this has happened," Brigadier General Amir Ali Hajizadeh told IRNA. "A film of the flight will be released soon."
In a video posted by the semi-official Tasnim News Agency, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei voiced satisfaction at the news after seeing a replica of the drone, saying: "Today is a very sweet and unforgettable day for me."
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So ISIS has fighter jets and Iran has drones... and the US is doubling its troops in the region... yep, seems like a good reason to buy more stocks.
