Iran military says copying U.S. drone
Reuters
By Marcus George
April 22, 2012
Iran’s military has started to build a copy of a U.S. surveillance drone captured last year after breaking the software encryption, Iranian media reported on Sunday.
General Amir Ali Hajizadeh, head of the Revolutionary Guards aerospace division, said engineers were in the final stages of decoding data from the Sentinel aircraft, which came down in December near the Afghan border, Mehr news agency reported.
Iran said the unmanned aircraft was shot down, but Washington disputes that and says the security systems mean Iran is unlikely to get valuable information from the Lockheed Martin Corp drone.
“The Americans should be aware to what extent we have infiltrated the plane,” Fars news agency quoted Hajizadeh as saying. “Our experts have full understanding of its components and program.”
Iran’s military regular announces defense and engineering developments, but some analysts are skeptical as to how reliable those reports are.
U.S. Senator Joe Lieberman, a member of the Armed Services Committee, voiced his own doubts.
“There’s a history here of Iranian bluster, particularly now when they’re on the defensive because of our economic sanctions against them,” Lieberman said in a television interview. …
Read on: www.reuters.com/article/2012/04/22/us-iran-military-drone-idUSBRE83L02I20120422
