IRGC’s Second-in-Command Brigadier General Hossein Salami said on Tuesday that the Israeli aircraft had been immediately traced after it entered Iranian skies, but it was deliberately allowed to continue its path towards its destination.
The IRGC forces were seeking to gather information about the exact espionage mission of the radar-evading drone before shooting it down at the right time, added the top general.
Salami further said Iran’s defense sector “does not need to reverse-engineer this drone despite having the capabilities to do that.”
The Iranian commander further rejected speculations that the spy aircraft had taken off from Israel, saying the stealth drone might have been launched from a military base in one of the countries in the region.
The IRGC has recently successfully intercepted and shot down an Israeli espionage unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV), which was on its way toward Natanz nuclear facility in Iran’s central province of Isfahan.
The sophisticated stealth drone, which is an Israeli-made Hermes type, can operate within a radius of 800 kilometers and is capable of flying 1,600 kilometers without refueling, according to the IRGC.
Iranian military experts are currently analyzing the remaining components of the downed aircraft to extract any data stored on its system.
Iran’s Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) managed to track the recently-downed Israeli spy drone the moment it penetrated the Iranian airspace, says a top commander.
News ID 187088
