URGENT: Iran Downs Israeli Spy Drone near Natanz Nuclear Site
24 August 2014
http://english.farsnews.com/newstext.aspx?nn=13930602001479

TEHRAN (FNA - Fars News Agency)- The Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC)
Aerospace Force shot down an Israeli spy drone before it could reach Natanz
nuclear enrichment facility, in Central Iran, on Sunday.


"A pilotless Israeli spy plane was shot down after it was traced and
intercepted by the IRGC Aerospace Force," a statement by the IRGC's Public
Relations Department announced minutes ago.

According to the statement, the Israeli pilotless aircraft was a
radar-evading, stealth drone with the mission to spy on Iran's enrichment
activities by flying over Natanz nuclear enrichment plant.

The IRGC also pointed out in its statement that the Israeli hostile aircraft
has been targeted by a surface-to-air missile.

"This mischievous attempt once again made the adventurous nature of the
Zionist regime more evident and added another black page to the dark record
of this fake and warmongering regime, which is full of crimes and
wickedness," the statement added.

The IRGC further warned that it "preserves the right of reaction and
retaliation for itself".

It also noted that the IRGC alongside other Armed Forces of the Islamic
Republic is fully and resolutely ready to defend the noble Iranian nation
and Islamic Iran.

Iran has so far downed several US drones in the last few years. In the most
notable case the country announced on December 4, 2011 that its defense
forces had downed a US RQ-170 aircraft through a sophisticated cyber attack.
The drone was the first such loss by the US. US officials have described the
loss of the aircraft in Iran as a setback and a fatal blow to the stealth
drone program.

The aircraft is among the highly sensitive surveillance platform in the
CIA's fleet that was shaped and designed to evade enemy defenses.

Since December, 2011, Iran has hunted down several more US drones of various
types.

In January 2013, a deputy commander of the Iranian Navy announced that the
country's Army had hunted two more advanced RQ type UAVs.

"The air-defense units of the Army have hunted two enemy drones," Deputy
Commander of the Iranian Navy for Coordination Rear Admiral Amir Rastegari
told FNA.

"These drones were from 11th series of the RQ class, and one of them was
hunted in Shahrivar 1390 (August 21-September 19, 2011) and the other one in
Aban (October 22-November 20, 2012)," Rastegari said, adding that the Army
research center is now studying the two UAVs.

"Much of the data of these drones has been decoded by the Army's Jihad and
Research Center," he said, but did not provide any further detail.

The remarks by the Iranian commander came after Iran announced on December
4, 2012 that the IRGC Navy had hunted a US UAV over the Persian Gulf after
the drone violated the country's airspace.

The IRGC navy commander announced at the time that the hunted UAV was a
ScanEagle drone, adding that "such drones are usually launched from large
warships".

ScanEagle is a small, low-cost, long-endurance unmanned aerial vehicle built
by Insitu, a subsidiary of Boeing.

Iran later reproduced its own model of ScanEagle through reverse engineering
techniques.

Iran has downed many other US drones as well, and they have always started
reproducing them after conducting reverse engineering on them.

The unmanned surveillance plane lost by the United States in Iran was a
stealth aircraft being used for secret missions by the CIA, US officials
admitted in December. The aircraft is among the highly sensitive
surveillance platform in the CIA's fleet that was shaped and designed to
evade enemy defenses.

In December, Lieutenant Commander of the IRGC Brigadier General Hossein
Salami announced that the Iranian version of the US drone, RQ-170, would be
unveiled to the public soon.

“The construction of this drone will finish soon and most of the job has
been done now,” General Salami told reporters on the sidelines of a
conference in Tehran in December, 2013.

In relevant remarks in October, Commander of the IRGC Aerospace Force
Brigadier General Amir Ali Hajizadeh said that Iran moved as much as 35
years ahead in building drone engines by reverse engineering the US drone,
RQ-170 which was tracked and hunted down in Iran late in 2011.

The RQ-170 engines are the fifth generation and the engines of Iranian
unmanned planes are the third generation, Hajizadeh said, adding that to
produce the engine we had to spend 35 years on the project.

He said that the home-made version of the US drone RQ-170 captured by the
IRGC would make its maiden flight in the near future.

In April, 2013, a senior Iranian parliamentary official announced that Iran
has reverse engineered the RQ-170, adding that the Iranian version of the
drone would soon have a test flight.

"The brave personnel of the Armed Forces hunted down the drone with their
knowledge and science and the Americans protested immediately and called for
the return of the UAV," Chairman of the parliament's National Security and
Foreign Policy Commission Alaeddin Boroujerdi said in the Northern city of
Rasht last April.

Iran has downed several US drones so far and Boroujerdi did not mention
which one he meant, but explained, "The reverse engineering started
immediately (by the Iranian experts after hunting down the US UAV) and the
Iranian type of the US drone will fly in Iran's Aerospace Organization soon
which shows the Islamic Republic's might and power."