2011 Iran RQ-170 capture

Iranian capture of a US. surveillance drone June 2026 July 2014 On 5 December 2011, an American Lockheed Martin RQ-170 Sentinel unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) was captured by Iranian forces near the city of Kashmar in northeastern Iran. The Iranian government announced that the UAV was brought down by its cyberwarfare unit, which had commandeered the aircraft and safely landed it, after initial reports from Western news sources had claimed that it had been shot down.https://www.csmonitor.com/World/Middle-East/2011/1215/Exclusive-Iran-hijacked-US-drone-says-Iranian-engineer Exclusive: Iran hijacked US drone, says Iranian engineer Scott Peterson Payam Faramarzi csmonitor.com 2011 16 March 2026 The United States government initially denied the claims but President Barack Obama later acknowledged that the downed aircraft was a US drone.https://edition.cnn.com/2013/02/07/world/meast/iran-drone-video/ Iran claims released footage is from downed U.S. drone CNN Lateef Mungin 22 October 2013 16 March 2026https://edition.cnn.com/2011/12/12/world/meast/iran-us-drone/index.html Obama says U.S. has asked Iran to return drone aircraft CNN CNN Wire Staff 22 October 2013 16 March 2026 Iran filed a complaint with the United Nations over the airspace violation. Obama asked Iran to return the drone. Iran is said to have produced drones based on the captured RQ-170, including the Shahed 171 Simorgh and the Shahed Saeqeh. Capture of the drone thumb|480px|Images of the RQ-170 Sentinel taken from a US Army recognition manual The government of Iran announced that the aircraft was detected in Iranian airspace 225 km us from the border with Afghanistan,https://www.rferl.org/a/us_iran_drone_deal/24418300.html Iran Says No To Returning U.S. Drone, But Hints At Deal Radiofreeeurope/Radioliberty Rferl.org 16 March 2026 and it was brought down with minimal damage by its cyberwarfare unit stationed near Kashmar.Maroney Sean Iranian Video Displays Alleged US Drone 9 December 2011 https://www.voanews.com/a/iranian-video-displays-alleged-us-drone-135363998/149368.html Voice of America 16 March 2026 The government of the United States initially claimed that its forces in Afghanistan had lost control of a UAV on 4 December 2011, and that there was a possibility that this was the vehicle that crashed near Kashmar. According to unnamed US officials, a UAV operated by the Central Intelligence Agency was flying on the Afghan side of the Afghanistan–Iran border when its operators lost control of the vehicle.Iran shows film of captured US drone https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-16098562 BBC News 8 December 2011 16 March 2026U.S. officials, analysts differ on whether drone in Iran TV video is real. CNN.com. (8 December 2011) Retrieved 12 December 2011. The UAV may have been taking part in surveillance of nuclear facilities in Iran.Drone Crash in Iran Reveals Secret U.S. Surveillance Effort Scott Shane David E Sanger https://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/08/world/middleeast/drone-crash-in-iran-reveals-secret-us-surveillance-bid.html The New York Times 7 December 2011 16 March 2026 The drone appeared to be largely intact, except for possible minor visible damage on its left wing. Dan Goure, an analyst at the Lexington Institute, stated the largely intact airframe ruled out the possibility of an engine or navigational malfunction: "Either this was a cyber/electronic warfare attack system that brought the system down or it was a glitch in the command-and-control system."http://www.airforcetimes.com/news/2011/12/defense-iran-captured-rq-170-how-bad-120911/ Iran's captured RQ-170: How bad is the damage? Dave Majumdar 9 December 2011 Air Force Times At least one US source admitted that Iran could have interrupted the data link and brought it to a soft landing.Majumdar Dave Iranian Copy of U.S. Unmanned Stealth Aircraft is a Fake http://news.usni.org/2014/05/12/iranian-copy-u-s-unamnned-stealth-aircraft-fake USNI News 12 May 2014 Some US officials stated the drone broke into three pieces during impact. They claimed that it was reassembled for display purposes and was painted by Iran to hide the damage.http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4162745,00.html US official: Iran assembled drone like puzzle Ynetnews Ynetnews.com 2011-12-17 16 March 2026 Prior to this event a significant keystroke-logging virus infection was reported at a U.S. drone command center. Reports indicate it occurred at Creech Air Force Base in Nevada in October 2011Oct 10, 2011 Computer virus hits U.S. drone fleet https://www.cnn.com/2011/10/10/tech/innovation/virus-hits-drone-fleet-wired CNN, which raises the question if these events are connected. The United States Department of Defense released a statement acknowledging that it had lost control of a UAV during the previous week, claiming that it was "flying a mission over western Afghanistan" when control was lost. The U.S. government also stated that it was still investigating the cause of the loss.Jaffe Greg Erdbrink, Thomas Iran says it downed U.S. stealth drone; Pentagon acknowledges aircraft downing https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/iran-says-it-downed-us-stealth-drone-pentagon-acknowledges-aircraft-downing/2011/12/04/gIQAyxa8TO_story.html?wprss=rss_national-security 16 March 2026 The Washington Post 5 December 2011 An article in The Christian Science Monitor relates an Iranian engineer's assertion that the drone was captured by jamming both satellite and land-originated control signals to the UAV, causing the UAV to fall back to GPS autopilot. Iran followed up by a GPS spoofing attack that fed the UAV false GPS data to make it land in Iran at what the drone thought was its home base in Afghanistan. UAV guidance could have been targeted by Avtobaza radar jamming and deception system supplied to Iran by Russia.http://www.flightglobal.com/blogs/the-dewline/2011/12/avtobaza-irans-weapon-in-rq-17.html About the FlightGlobal Group - Blogs Announcement - flightglobal.comJohnson Robert Meet The Russian Avtobaza — Iran's Possible DroneKiller http://articles.businessinsider.com/2011-12-05/news/30476929_1_jamming-tehran-iran-six-weeks#ixzz1gkppK9UO Business Insider December 5, 2011 2011-12-17 https://web.archive.org/web/20120115010006/http://articles.businessinsider.com/2011-12-05/news/30476929_1_jamming-tehran-iran-six-weeks#ixzz1gkppK9UO January 15, 2012 dead In an interview for Nova, U.S. retired Lt. General David Deptula said "There was a problem with the aircraft and it landed in an area it wasn't supposed to land".https://www.csmonitor.com/World/Middle-East/2011/1215/Exclusive-Iran-hijacked-US-drone-says-Iranian-engineer Exclusive: Iran hijacked US drone, says Iranian engineer Scott Peterson Payam Faramarzi 15 December 2011 Christian Science Monitor"Nova - Rise of the Drones" http://video.pbs.org/video/2314355060/ https://web.archive.org/web/20130111024320/http://video.pbs.org/video/2314355060 dead 11 January 2013 23 January 2013 24 January 2013 "0:37" David A. Deptula, Lt. General, USAF (Retired) American aeronautical engineers dispute this, pointing out that — as is the case with the MQ-1 Predator, the MQ-9 Reaper, and the Tomahawk missile — "GPS is not the primary navigation sensor for the RQ-170... The vehicle gets its flight path orders from an inertial navigation system".Meade Sean http://www.aviationweek.com/aw/blogs/defense/index.jsp?plckController=Blog&plckBlogPage=BlogViewPost&newspaperUserId=27ec4a53-dcc8-42d0-bd3a-01329aef79a7&plckPostId=Blog%3A27ec4a53-dcc8-42d0-bd3a-01329aef79a7Post%3Abca8e6e2-70ef-40a3-8c56-f83aa6fc7ade Ares Aviation Week 2014-08-24 Inertial navigation continues to be used on military aircraft despite the advent of GPS because GPS signal jamming and spoofing are relatively simple operations.http://aviationintel.com/?p=4681 Iran Says It Will Display More Us & Israeli Drones aviationintel 16 December 2011 1 May 2012 7 July 2012 https://archive.today/20120707135913/http://aviationintel.com/?p=4681 dead US acknowledgement On 5 December 2011, US military sources confirmed that the remains of an RQ-170 had been captured by Iranian forces. Media reports indicated that various US officials declined to confirm whether or not the drone in the video released by Iranian state television was authentic.https://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/09/world/middleeast/iran-shows-us-drone-on-tv-and-lodges-a-protest.html Iran Shows Video It Says Is of U.S. Drone Rick Gladstone 8 December 2011 the New York Times On 8 December 2011, a senior US official, speaking on condition of anonymity, told The Washington Post that the US cannot be certain the drone shown was real because the US does not have access to it, but also stated that "We have no indication that it was brought down by hostile fire." A second senior US military official said that a major question is how the drone could have remained "virtually intact," given the high altitude from which it is said to have crashed. US Navy Captain John Kirby, a Pentagon spokesman, told a news conference on 8 December 2011 that Pentagon analysts were examining the video.http://www.cnn.com/2011/12/08/world/meast/iran-drone/index.html U.S. officials, analysts differ on whether drone in Iran TV video is real 8 December 2011 CNN Both Kirby and fellow spokesman George Little would not comment further on whether the US military believed the drone was the one missing, both did say that the missing drone had not been recovered. Later that day, CBS reported that the US officials had confirmed in private the authenticity of the drone shown by the Iranians.U.S. official: Iran does have our drone. CBS News (8 December 2011). Retrieved 12 December 2011. On 6 December 2011, US officials acknowledged that a drone crashed in or near Iranian airspace and that this belonged to the CIA and not to ISAF as was earlier stated. US officials did not state that the drone shown on Iranian television was actually a real RQ-170 (which has been public knowledge since 2009).https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/checkpoint-washington/post/after-drone-was-lost-cia-tried-a-head-fake/2011/12/06/gIQAJNrnZO_blog.html After drone was lost, CIA tried a head fake 6 December 2011 8 December 2011 The Washington Post Complaint to UN Security Council On 9 December 2011, Iran lodged a formal complaint to the United Nations Security Council over the UAV violating its airspace. Iran's UN ambassador stated in the letter that "My government emphasizes that this blatant and unprovoked air violation by the United States government is tantamount to an act of hostility against the Islamic Republic of Iran in clear contravention of international law, in particular, the basic tenets of the United Nations Charter."General: Iran won't return U.S. drone it claims to have http://www.cnn.com/2011/12/12/world/meast/iran-us-drone/ 28 November 2013 CNN 11 December 2011 Request for return by the United States On 12 December 2011, the US administration asked Iran to return the captured US drone.Obama appeals to Iran to give back downed US drone https://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5i5gl4YdDNfAVphvLVmdMcaRn0_9g?docId=a53662c2dddb450c977fe582ff1985a7 https://archive.today/20120109070144/http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5i5gl4YdDNfAVphvLVmdMcaRn0_9g?docId=a53662c2dddb450c977fe582ff1985a7 dead 9 January 2012 11 December 2011 The New York Times 9 December 2011 The day before, on 11 December, General Salami stated that "no nation welcomes other countries' spy drones in its territory, and no one sends back the spying equipment and its information back to the country of origin."General: Iran won't return U.S. drone it claims to have http://articles.cnn.com/2011-12-11/middleeast/world_meast_iran-us-drone_1_spy-drones-rq-170-unmanned-aircraft?_s=PM:MIDDLEEAST 13 December 2011 CNN 11 December 2011 https://web.archive.org/web/20111212232737/http://articles.cnn.com/2011-12-11/middleeast/world_meast_iran-us-drone_1_spy-drones-rq-170-unmanned-aircraft?_s=PM:MIDDLEEAST 12 December 2011 dead On 13 December 2011, Defence Minister of Iran, dismissed the request and said "Instead of apologising to the Iranian nation, it is brazenly asking for the drone back." And the ministry spokesman, Ramin Mehmanparast, stated that "it seems he [Obama] has forgotten that Iran’s airspace was violated, spying operations were undertaken, international laws were violated and that Iran’s internal affairs were interfered with... . Instead of an official apology and admitting to this violation, they are making this request."Iran says captured US drone is their 'property' now https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/middleeast/iran/8952827/Iran-says-captured-US-drone-is-their-property-now.html The Daily Telegraph 13 December 2011 13 December 2011 Former US Vice President Dick Cheney criticized Obama's decisions on the drone, saying that, after the aircraft went down, the president should have ordered an airstrike within Iran: "The right response to that would have been to go in immediately after it had gone down and destroy it. You can do that from the air ... and, in effect, make it impossible for them to benefit from having captured that drone." Instead, "he asked nicely for them to return it, and they aren't going to".https://edition.cnn.com/2011/12/12/world/meast/iran-us-drone/?hpt=hp_t1 Obama says the U.S. has asked Iran to return drone aircraft 13 December 2011 13 December 2011 CNN On 17 January 2012, the Aaye Art Group, an Iranian company, said it would send miniature, toy versions of the captured drone to President Obama as a response to the request for sending the drone back.http://www.cnn.com/2012/01/18/world/meast/iran-drone-replicas/index.html Iranian company wants to send toy drone to Obama - CNN.com Shirzad Bozorgmehr CNN 18 January 2012 2016-09-15 Reverse engineering of the drone Shahed 171 Simorgh Shahed Saegheh thumb|Iranian-built copy of the RQ-170 in 2014. On 10 December 2011, Iran announced that it intended to carry out reverse engineering on the captured RQ-170 Sentinel stealth aircraft.August 2021 In April 2012, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps claimed to have succeeded in extracting the entirety of the data collected by the drone and are currently in the process of building a replica of the aircraft.https://www.sfgate.com/world/article/iran-says-it-has-gleaned-data-from-u-s-spy-drone-3501847.php Iran says it has gleaned data from U.S. spy drone 22 April 2012 23 April 2012 San Francisco Chronicle Iran claimed to have been approached by countries, including China and Russia, seeking information on the drone.https://www.foxnews.com/world/russia-china-seek-info-on-us-drone-held-by-iran/ Russia, China seek info on US drone held by Iran 19 April 2012 23 April 2012 Fox News Although US officials expressed concern over the possibility of China or Russia receiving the drone's technology, they cast doubt on whether Iran could replicate the technology of the aircraft, as well as the amount of intelligence data available, due to the precautions installed for malfunctioning drones.http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2012/04/23/officials-challenge-iran-claims-on-us-drone-despite-concerns-about-working-with/ https://web.archive.org/web/20120423155621/http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2012/04/23/officials-challenge-iran-claims-on-us-drone-despite-concerns-about-working-with/ dead 23 April 2012 Officials challenge Iran claims on US drone – despite concerns about value to Russia, China 23 April 2012 Fox News In May 2014, Iranian state TV displayed what was claimed to be a reverse-engineered RQ-170. Sources familiar with the RQ-170's design say that the Iranian RQ-170 is merely a static mock-up rather than a flyable aircraft.https://news.usni.org/2014/05/12/iranian-copy-u-s-unamnned-stealth-aircraft-fake Iranian Copy of U.S. Unmanned Stealth Aircraft is a Fake 2014-05-12 USNI News 2016-09-15 In November 2014 Iran claimed to have carried out a successful test flight of an aircraft based on reverse engineering of the RQ-170.http://defenceradar.com/2014/11/10/iran-carries-successful-test-flight-of-reverse-engineered-rq-170/ Iran carries successful test flight of reverse-engineered RQ-170 Nov 10, 2014 10 November 2014 https://web.archive.org/web/20141110130745/http://defenceradar.com/2014/11/10/iran-carries-successful-test-flight-of-reverse-engineered-rq-170/ 10 November 2014 dead dmy-all The semi-official Tasnim News Agency of Iran reported in September 2016 that a UAV named Sa'egheh, similar in appearance to the RQ-170 Sentinel, had been built. It was said to be able to carry four precision-guided bombs; the range was not stated.https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/oct/01/iran-builds-thunderbolt-drone Iran builds attack drone similar to captured US model, local media say The Guardian 2 October 2016 2 October 2016 In 2016, Iran unveiled the Simorgh, designed after the RQ-170.Simorgh: Iran's Reproduced US Sentinel Spy Drone RQ-170 with Improved Features Farsnews Agency https://www.farsnews.ir/en/news/13941220000394/Simrgh-Iran39-s-Reprdced-US-Seninel-Spy-Drne-RQ-0-wih-Imprved-Feares 2022-03-29 www.farsnews.ir The Israeli military shot down a Saegheh drone during the February 2018 Israel–Syria incident. Israeli media reported that the UAV's design was indeed largely based on the RQ-170, IAF Brigadier General Tomer Bar said that the drone was quite advanced and emulated Western technology.https://www.timesofisrael.com/iranian-uav-that-entered-israeli-airspace-seems-to-be-american-stealth-knock-off/ Iranian UAV that entered Israeli airspace seems to be American stealth knock-off Gross Judah Ari 10 February 2018 The Times of Israel 12 February 2018 en-US Decoded footage obtained from captured US drone On 7 February 2013, Iran released video footage allegedly from the RQ-170 stealth plane. They claim the footage shows the drone coming in for a landing at the Kandahar base. Commander of the Aerospace Division of the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) Brigadier General Amir-Ali Hajizadeh said that all the data on the downed drone was "fully decoded.".BBC News Iran shows 'hacked US spy drone' video footage https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-21373353 7 February 2013 See also Iran United States Politics Aviation Islamic Republic of Iran Air Defense Force Yasir (UAV) – An Iranian UAV based on an American ScanEagle drone that was captured in a similar incident Saegheh (UAV) – An Iranian UAV based on, but smaller than and different from, the RQ-170 Shahed 171 Simorgh – An Iranian full-size copy of the RQ-170 2019 Iranian shoot-down of American drone Iran–United States relations during the Obama administration References 30em Iran Category:2011 in international relations Category:2011 in Iran Category:21st-century military history of the United States Category:Aviation accidents and incidents in Iran Category:2011 conflicts Category:Iran–United States military relations Category:Presidency of Barack Obama Category:Lockheed Martin Category:Kashmar Category:Reverse engineering