On Monday, Commander of the Aerospace Division of the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) Brigadier General Amirali Hajizadeh said the spy drone had been designed to store data on its system, not to send information online; therefore, it was unable to transmit any data.
Last month, the IRGC forces managed to intercept and shoot down an Israeli unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) which was heading to the Natanz nuclear facility in the central Iranian province of Isfahan.
Referring to the domestically produced version of a sophisticated US drone captured by Iran in 2011, the top general announced that the “final version” of the RQ-170 drone will be put into operation by the end of the current Iranian calendar year (started March 21, 2014).
On December 4, 2011, the Iranian military’s electronic warfare unit announced that it had successfully downed the American RQ-170 reconnaissance and spy drone in the eastern part of Iran with minimal damage.
In May, the IRGC unveiled a domestically developed version of the sophisticated US drone it captured back in 2011. The US RQ-170 Sentinel was reverse-engineered by IRGC experts in about two years.
The drone was one of America’s most advanced spy aircraft and its loss was considered a major embarrassment for Washington.