Iran: Military captured foreign "enemy drone"

Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei waves to a crowd attending his speech in a mosque inside the leader's housing compound in Tehran, Iran, Feb. 16, 2013, in this picture released by the official website of the Iranian supreme leader's office. / AP Photo/Office of the Supreme Leader

TEHRAN, Iran Iran's powerful Revolutionary Guard said Saturday that it captured a foreign unmanned aircraft during a military exercise in southern Iran.

Gen. Hamid Sarkheili, a spokesman for the military exercise, said the Guard's electronic warfare unit spotted signals indicating that foreign drones were trying to enter Iranian airspace. Sarkheili said Guard experts took control of one drone's navigation system and brought it down near the city of Sirjan where the military drills began on Saturday.

"While probing signals in the area, we spotted foreign and enemy drones which attempted to enter the area of the war game," the official IRNA news agency quoted the general as saying. "We were able to get one enemy drone to land."

Sarkheili did not say whether the drone was American.

A Pentagon spokesperson had no comment on the drone for CBS News.

Iran has claimed to have captured several U.S. drones, including an advanced RQ-170 Sentinel CIA spy drone in December 2011 and at least three ScanEagle aircraft.

State TV said the Guard's military exercise, code-named Great Prophet-8, involved ground forces of the Guard, Iran's most powerful military force. State TV showed tanks and artillery attacking hypothetical enemy positions. He said various systems, including unmanned planes that operate like suicide bombers, were tested.

"Reconnaissance as well as suicide drones, which are capable of attacking the hypothetical enemies, were deployed and their operational capabilities were studied," the semi-official Fars news agency quoted him as saying.

[Helen_Waite]

REUTERS
LONDON - Iran's Revolutionary Guards said they had conducted tests aimed at bringing down a "hypothetical" foreign surveillance drone during a military exercise, the official Fars news agency said on Saturday.

The Islamic Republic News Agency, another official news agency, also reported the exercise, but omitted the word hypothetical giving the impression that a real drone had been downed.

[quincytodd]

Did the Iranians do this again, I hope? It sounds too good to be true, if it is. I noticed all these anti-Iranian comments posted by these bird brained fools here. Are these idiots brainwashed or what? The bottom line here is that we have absolutely no business over there, none at all!

[patric627]

and all of you believe this ******** from iran? too funny.

[Louis_Chez]

Most Americans don't believe ANYTHING coming out of Iran!

They are incapable of being forthcoming and truthful!

[sepa2]

Looks like despite mullahs Iran is the equivalent of pre WWII Germany.

[sepa2]

Due to sanction, Germany developed their own technologies that is what I was referring to

[js555554]

"What population have they moved to ghettos where they are under military occupation..."

Christians actually

[trifid_sagitari]

This captures are getting really embarrassing... how many so far? Three, four? Looks like Iran's is getting better and better, somebody between Lebanon and Egypt is not going to like it along with it's satellites.

Let's keep them dumb and corrupt is one of the protocols, so far it's not working.

[Noval53]

Well; sequestration will be the end of drones. Problem solved.

[alphaa10000]

Don't count on it-- there always will be someone who believes money already budgeted for drone surveillance is beyond reproach.

[realtimecoffee]

The whole point af pilotless dfrones is to not risk pilots. They succeed when they don't come back.

[rzarc2]

represt says: Obviously the "suicide drones" will be used in an attempt to overwhelm a single target. Like an aircraft carrier.
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What do you think a cruise missile is? Overwhelming attacks by that means have been deployed for almost 50 years by the Russkies.

[realtimecoffee]

And also it would take quite a few of these to even harm a carrier or make one alter it's ops.

[CitizenMikeM]

Anybody seen my Red Flyer balsa wood and rubber band airplane? I seem to have lost it somewhere.

[KansasCity-2012]

Readers might want to check out press releases on December 12, 2011 and April 23, 2012 concerning this issue. There was yet another on Feb 7, 2013.

This is old news.