Iran announces the first maiden flight of home-made copy of the U.S. drone RQ-170 1110133

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Defence & Security News - Iran

 
 
Friday, October 11, 2013 11:04 AM
 
Iran announces the first maiden flight of home-made copy of the U.S. drone RQ-170.
Commander of the Iranian Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) Aerospace Force Brigadier General Amir Ali Hajizadeh said that Iran moved as much as 35 years ahead in building drone engines by reverse engineering the US drone, RQ-170 which was tracked and hunted down in Iran late in 2011. The RQ-170 engines are the fifth generation and the engines of Iranian unmanned planes are the third generation, Hajizadeh said on Wednesday, October 11, 2013, adding that to produce the engine we had to spend 35 years on the project.
     
Commander of the Iranian Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) Aerospace Force Brigadier General Amir Ali Hajizadeh said that Iran moved as much as 35 years ahead in building drone engines by reverse engineering the US drone, RQ-170 which was tracked and hunted down in Iran late in 2011. The RQ-170 engines are the fifth generation and the engines of Iranian unmanned planes are the third generation, Hajizadeh said on Wednesday, October 11, 2013, adding that to produce the engine we had to spend 35 years on the project.
United States drone RQ-170 on display in Iran.
     

He said that the home-made version of the US drone RQ-170 captured by the IRGC will make its maiden flight in the near future.

In relevant remarks in September, Lieutenant Commander of the IRGC said an Iranian drone which has been manufactured through the reverse engineering of the US drone which was tracked and hunted down in Iran late in 2011 will be unveiled to the public soon.

"All the memories and computer systems of this plane have been decoded and some good news will be announced in the near future not just about the RQ-170 and the optimizations that our forces have done on the reversed engineered model of this drone, but also in area of other important defense achievements," IRGC Lieutenant Commander General Hossein Salami said.

Iran announced on December 4, 2011 that its defense forces had downed a US RQ-170 aircraft through a sophisticated cyber attack. The drone was the first such loss by the US. US officials have described the loss of the aircraft in Iran as a setback and a fatal blow to the stealth drone program.