According to the Pakistani Daily Times, Iran claims to have met its goal of copycatting a U.S. drone it intercepted back in December of 2011. Confirmation comes via state-televised broadcasts and tweets from the Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
The U.S. RQ-170 Sentinel was reportedly captured in the airspace above Tehran and claimed to be carrying out a mission to spy on Iran’s nuclear sites. Iran claims it took control of the drone and forced it down, confiscating it almost entirely intact in the desert. The U.S. military scoffed at the incident, asserting its arrogance by claiming Iran did not have the necessary technology for uncovering the drone’s “secrets.”
Nonetheless, one military officer said in the broadcasted footage that they’d broken the code.
“Our engineers succeeded in breaking the drone’s secrets and copying them. It will soon take a test flight.”
Broadcasts also showed Khamenei visiting an exhibition organized by the Revolutionary Guards air wing. The exhibition appeared to focus on Iran’s military advances, paying special detail to drones and ballistic missiles. One of Khamenei’s tweets even included a picture of the cloned drone. Further broadcast footage suggested two more drones of similar or identical make.
Iran already had a handful of armed unmanned aircraft that are capable of flying hundreds of miles to deliver their missiles, too; it’s been working on developing its drone program for some time. Broadcasts include footage from a drone that commentary claims is an Iranian unmanned aircraft flying over a U.S. aircraft carrier somewhere in the Gulf. They also go on to show Khamenei calling upon his Revolutionary Guards to begin mass-production of missiles.
“They expect us to limit our missile program while they constantly threaten Iran with military action. So this is a stupid, idiotic expectation.”
It seems the drone wars are only just beginning to amp up.
http://youtu.be/7vX8Gw6Iou0
Dylan Hock is a writer, professor, videographer and social activist. He earned an MFA in Writing from Naropa University in 2000 and has been an Occupier since Oct., 2011, both nationally and locally in Michigan. He is published in a number of little magazines and has an essay on the muzzling of Ezra Pound included in the anthology Star Power: The Impact Of Branded Celebrity due out July of 2014 by Praeger. He is also a contributing writer for Take Ten, Addicting Info and Green Action News.
edited by tw
