Iranian military claims to have shot down an RQ-170

[erik]

Take it for what it's worth.

TEHRAN (Reuters) - Iran's military said on Sunday it had shot down a U.S. reconnaissance drone aircraft in eastern Iran, a military source told state television.
"Iran's military has downed an intruding RQ-170 American drone in eastern Iran," Iran's Arabic-language Al Alam state television network quoted the unnamed source as saying.
"The spy drone, which has been downed with little damage, was seized by the Iranian armed forces."
Iran shot down the drone at a time when it is trying to contain foreign reaction to the storming of the British embassy in Tehran on Tuesday, shortly after London announced that it would impose sanctions on Iran's central bank in connection with Iran's controversial nuclear enrichment program.
Britain evacuated its diplomatic staff from Iran and expelled Iranian diplomats in London in retaliation, and several other EU members recalled their ambassadors from Tehran.
The attack dragged Iran's relations with Europe to a long-time low.
Washington and EU countries have been discussing measures to restrict Iran's oil exports since the United Nations nuclear watchdog issued a report in November with what it said was evidence that Tehran had worked on designing an atom bomb.
Iran says its nuclear program is entirely peaceful.
(Created by Parisa Hafezi; Editing by Tim Pearce)

Iran military shoots down U.S. drone: state TV - Yahoo! News

[mustavaris]

Pictures or it never happened-

[Gramps]

Pictures or it never happened-

Exactly.

[TopHatter]

Yeah really. Until we hear something from the DoD or some credible pics from the Iranians, this is another ho-hum attempt at distraction...in this case, from the British Embassy debacle.

[Skywatcher]

Or it could have just crashed on its own.

[TopHatter]

Hmph, looks like this is the third time this has happened (or not)

From Al Jazeera:

Iranian media is reporting that its forces have brought down an unmanned US spy plane.

"Iran's military has downed an intruding RQ-170 American drone in eastern Iran," Iran's Arabic-language Al Alam state television network quoted an unnamed source as saying on Sunday.

The semiofficial Fars news agency reported that the plane is now in the possession of Iran's armed forces. The Fars news agency is close to the powerful Revolutionary Guard.

It said the drone had been brought through a combined effort by Iran's armed forces, air defence forces and its cyberwarfare unit.

"Iran's military has downed an intruding RQ-170 American drone in eastern Iran," Iran's Arabic-language Al Alam state television network quoted an unnamed source as saying on Sunday.

Al Jazeera has been unable to independently verify this information, and there has been no confirmation of the attack from US authorities.

Iran said in January that two pilotless spy planes it had shot down over its airspace were US-operated and offered to put them on public display.

In July, Iran also claimed to have shot down a drone, but never shared video or photographic evidence.

The Islamic Republic holds frequent military drills, primarily to assert an ability to defend against a potential US or Israeli attack on its nuclear facilities.

Iran is locked in a dispute with the US and its allies over Tehran's disputed nuclear programme, which the West believes is aimed at the development of nuclear weapons. Iran denies the accusations, saying its programme is entirely peaceful. Link

[TopHatter]

Or it could have just crashed on its own.

Entirely possible. The Global Hawks were/are(?) kinda notorious for that.

[chakos]

If this turns out to be true then wouldn't this be an admission that the Iranians have at least one s300 battery? I can't see anything else in their inventory that could take down an aircraft with stealth capabilities short of the SA15 and I can't imagine the drone would have been flying low enoughfor that system to come into play.

In fact it may even have been a probe to test iranian air defences. Far better to find they are using S300 variants through the loss of a drone then through the loss of a flight of manned strike aircraft.

[Doktor]

You mean like Serbs had in 1999 when they shot down F-117?

[chakos]

You mean like Serbs had in 1999 when they shot down F-117?

Two completely different generations of stealth aircraft. Capabilities change, by your line of reasoning an SA3 could take down a B2. Your not going to shoot down current gen stealth aircraft with 30yold pieces of kit. This would have been a high flying drone, if you assume the Iranians don't have the S300 then it was shot down with an SA2 (no hope in hell) or an SA5 (slightly more likely but not by much).

[Doktor]

I am not suggesting anything.

IIRC the radar the Serbs were using was some 1970's era equipment, while the Americans were so confident, like you now, that they can't be hit with that.

Not trying to imply anything, just saying that things happen. Good thing (if the article is true) is that we are talking UAV. Bad thing is that tech is going Beijing or Moscow right now.

[chakos]

Understood. I just don't think the same 1970s radars and missiles would be worth all that much against a stealth platform 2-3 generations ahead of the F117. I may very well be wrong, AK47's still kill people today regardless of age, I just doubt it.

[Mihais]

Gents,all you need in order to shoot down anything is the human eye and a weapon.We don't know the circumstances of this and we won't know for a long time because we don't need to know.

What is reasonble to guess is that in Iran right now Air Defense Olympics is ongoing.

[Doktor]

If no "incident" in the Chinese or Russian embassy it's fake news;)

[Skywatcher]

Maybe one of the Iranian S-200 shot it down? If they managed to detect and get a good lock on it, the RQ-170 would be hard pressed to run for safety.