Official: Iran Among Few Countries Possessing Drone Technology

Tehran, Dec 11, IRNA – Deputy Commander of Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) Major General Hossein Salami said Iran is among few countries which possesses technology of unmanned aerial vehicle with scanning and reconnaissance systems. Speaking with Iranian TV Channel 2 on Saturday evening, General Salami said the drone which had violated Iranian airspace and was downed by Iran’s aerospace technology is an American spy plane which shows US modern intelligence technology in all respects. He was talking about Stealth-version of the RQ-170 drone of US on a CIA spy missin which was detected, hacked, and downed by the Islamic Republic of Iran's Armed Forces over the eastern town of Kashmar, some 225 kilometers (140 miles) from the border with Afghanistan on Sunday, December 4, 2011. Elaborating on some technical specifications of the spy plane, General Salami added that he had to avoid getting into details so that the technology used to down the plane is not revealed. He said Iran has drones which cannot be detected by radar and are able to fly tens of hours and have complicated software, however, as a matter of expedience, they have not been displayed completely in public. Referring to the downed plane, Salami said these planes have some specifications that include all informational and technological advances and are very valuable for us and the downing of the US drone is a victory for us and a defeat for our enemies. “As far as technology is concerned, the gap between us and the US or the Zionist regime and other developed countries is not so wide that having this drone is a dream for us but other countries may consider is as something astonishing,” said General Salami. “In intelligence and cyber wars, we are not hand-tied, but our enemies do not have a deep understanding of our capabilities and I advise them to think more on it,” he added. He said the US drone was working for Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and its violation of Iranian airspace is considered a hostile action which is a crime. On media reports about US concerns over the fact that Russia and China may access the advanced technology of this plane, General Salami said the two countries have not demanded anything so far but added that countries which are in intelligence war with US are eager to know the slightest thing about the drone. He said Iran had already downed other drones in its airspace but they were not that important and so, they were not declared. He emphasized that Iran airspace is quite insecure for US drones and Americans will lose information rather gather it if they repeat the action./end