Originally posted by the Voice of America.
Voice of America content is produced by the Voice of America,
a United States federal government-sponsored entity, and is in
the public domain.


Iran Touts New Combat Drone 5 Years After Capturing US Prototype

by VOA News

   Iranian news reports say Tehran has built a new aerial attack drone
   similar to a U.S. military aerial vehicle captured five years ago after
   it entered Iranian airspace from the country's eastern border with
   Afghanistan.

   The semiofficial Tasnim news agency said the "Saeqeh" ("Thunderbolt")
   long-range drone is capable of hitting four targets with smart bombs
   with what it called "pinpoint accuracy."

   The report described the new drone as a homegrown aircraft "made by
   reverse engineering of [an] American Lockheed Martin RQ-170" vehicle
   that was downed in December 2011. It described the new drone as part of
   a broad range of unmanned vehicles with civilian and military
   applications.

   There has been no official U.S. comment on the Tasnim report.

   In 2012, Iranian media quoted a top general as saying data recovered
   from the seized U.S. drone showed it was used to conduct surveillance
   on the Pakistan hideout of al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden shortly
   before he was killed by U.S. forces in 2011.

   The Washington Post also reported that year that a CIA stealth
   surveillance drone had earlier flown deep over Iranian territory,
   capturing images of Iran's high-security Qom uranium enrichment
   facility before leaving the country's airspace.

   During that period, Iran and Western powers were embroiled in a
   contentious dispute over the details of Iran's suspect nuclear program,
   which was widely thought to be working to develop nuclear weapons.

   The dispute led to a series of crippling Western sanctions against Iran
   that remained in place until 2015, when Tehran reached a preliminary
   agreement with Western powers to redesign its nuclear facilities to
   curtail the production of nuclear fuels.