Iran copy RQ 170 scaled model jet engine 170

November 12, 2014 (Persian calendar 1393/8/21) The footage of the Iranian version of a US drone which was brought down some three years ago and later reverse-engineered by Iranian experts has been released. Iran recently put into operation a final version of the sophisticated US RQ-170 stealth aircraft, which was downed with minimal damage by the Iranian Armed Forces’ electronic warfare unit in December, 2011, while flying over the Iranian city of Kashmar كاشمر, some 225 kilometers (140 miles) from the Afghan border. The domestically produced version of the unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) made a successful maiden flight a few days ago the footage of which has just been released. At the time when the American drone was captured, US military officials tried to play the incident down, saying Iran did not have the technology to decipher the data stored on the UAV. However, the aircraft was successfully reverse-engineered by IRGC experts in about two years. In May, the Islamic Republic unveiled a copy of the American UAV originally designed and developed by the Lockheed Martin Company. The drone is one of the United States’ most advanced spy aircraft and its loss is considered a major embarrassment for Washington. On November 10, Commander of the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) Aerospace Force, Brigadier General Amir Ali Hajizadeh, told the press that the Iranian version of the RQ-170 drone, modified to carry out both bombing and reconnaissance missions, has already had its maiden flight. “The footage of its flight will be released soon,” Hajizadeh told reporters according to FARS News. Whereas the first prototype was a smaller copy of the Sentinel (60% the size of the original RQ-170) which flew about four months ago, the final model is a full-scale, reverse-engineered stealthy drone, equipped with special parts required to carry bombs. According to the Iranians the American drone was brought down by the Iranian Armed Forces’ electronic warfare unit which hacked into the RQ-170 remote control systems and ordered the aircraft to land in the eastern part of the country.