Iran building replica of US drone

A senior Iranian commander says the country has reverse-engineered an American spy drone captured by Tehran’s armed forces last year and has begun building a copy. Gen Amir Ali Hajizadeh, who is chief of the aerospace division of the powerful Revolutionary Guards, was quoted Sunday by the semi-official Mehr news agency as saying that experts are also recovering data from the US RQ-170 Sentinel captured in December in eastern Iran. US officials have acknowledged losing the drone. They have said Iran will find it hard to exploit any data and technology aboard it because of measures taken to limit the intelligence value of drones operating over hostile territory. Last December, the Iranian military’s electronic warfare unit announced that Iran had downed with minimal damage the US RQ-170 Sentinel stealth reconnaissance aircraft, while it was flying above Iran’s northeastern city of Kashmar. US officials later confirmed that the drone was part of a CIA reconnaissance mission, involving the United States intelligence community stationed in Afghanistan. According to the official Iranian news agency, reports from the Pentagon have revealed that United States’ military experts and officials are deeply worried about Tehran’s access to the drone as it contains highly classified technologies and materials which are used in a number of US planes, including the F-22. Meanwhile, Russia and China have asked Tehran to provide them with information on a US drone, a senior defence ministry advisor said, according to the official FARS news agency on Saturday. Ahmad Karimpour, an adviser to Iran’s defence minister, said Tehran has received requests from many countries for information on the RQ-170 Sentinel, but Moscow and Beijing have been most aggressive in their pursuit of details on the drone. He did not elaborate.