Topic: WAR - on January 23, 2012 at 11:22:00 AM CET
Air Force Says Iran Didn't Down Drone
The U.S. Air Force recently announced that it knew what had caused one of its RQ-170 UAVs to crash in Iran two months ago. But the air force would not reveal details, except to say that Iran had nothing to do with the UAV crash landing. The air force did say that, because they had figured out what brought the RQ-170 down, they were continuing to fly RQ-170s on reconnaissance missions. The air force also revealed that the RQ-170 lost in Iran was being operated by the CIA.
The RQ-170 first showed up in Afghanistan and South Korea two years ago. The U.S. Air Force then admitted that this was a high altitude reconnaissance UAV developed in secret by Lockheed-Martin during the previous decade. It has a 12 meter (40 foot) wingspan. The RQ-170 is believed to be a replacement for some of the U-2s and a supplemental aircraft for the larger Global Hawk (which has a 42 meter wingspan.) RQ-170s have been operating over Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Iran for at least a year.
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