Reasons behind US Concern over Its Downed Drone
Reports on bringing down an RQ-170 US drone on the Iranian eastern frontier, which has been confirmed by the NATO and the United States, were released at a time that the aircraft is among the most advanced US spying tools. According to the evidences available it has been used in the most secret reconnaissance operations such as the attack on Osama bin Laden.
According to Raja News, what has mainly caused concern for the Americans is not merely the possession of the aircraft and its failure to pass through the Iranian radar but, this point that the Islamic Republic has managed in an unprecedented measure to hold control of America's most advanced aircraft and bring it down with all its valuable information. The incident could both help access to the information available in the aircraft and also make Iranian engineers familiar with the technology used in it.
In this regard, military experts told irannuc.ir that the reason for the downing of the US drone in Iran is that Iran has acquired defensive technology that could take control of flying objects near its borders or when they violate its airspace.
Western sources on Sunday, December 4, announced that a US drone crashed near Iran’s eastern border. These sources further added that a US RQ-170 drone was downed by the Iranian defensive system near Afghanistan and Pakistan border.
Some of the above-mentioned sources such as the CNN named Kashmar as the Iranian city where the drone was downed. It also quoted sources at the US Defense Department as saying that the aircraft carried highly classified information.
The same source in a separate report quoted American sources as saying that the Obama Administration is doubtful whether the downed drone would be the unarmed U.S. reconnaissance plane that went missing during a mission in western Afghanistan late last week. The BBC has called the incident a new chapter in Iran-US silent struggle.
The Russian news agency RIA Novosti in a report in this regard said that the US drone which is now in the hands of the Iranians is of the type to be hardly visible and the US usually uses it in order to help the commanding in the battle field with its required information. It said Iran has been successful in bringing the aircraft down with the least damage on it.
Even the most important is the VOA report in which it quoted a US military official as confirming the downing of the drone and saying that the main reason for the incident was “losing control” of the plane.
Meanwhile, military sources in Tehran confirmed holding control of the US drone and said this is not the first US unmanned plane that Iran has been successful to bring down.
However, the sources said using the term crash was not suitable for the drone as what has really happened is that through deployment of a highly sophisticated technology in the electronic war, Iran has managed to hold control of the plane and land it somewhere inside its own territory.
Another source noted: “The Americans are concerned over the technology used to bring the plane down rather than losing the drone.”
He said: “The Americans know well that no bullet has been shot at the drone and Iran has been able to bring it down inside its territory while its body and the tools inside it are all intact.”
Stressing that he could make no further comment in this regard, the military expert said: “From now on, Iranian borders would remain unsafe for the US flying objects. Iran is now capable of holding control of these flying objects without shooting a single bullet and merely by using an advanced electronic war technology and is leading them towards its own territory.”
This issue becomes important when attention is paid to the significance the use of unmanned plane has found in the US military strategy within the past three years. By using these aircraft in different parts of the world, especially in Pakistan, Afghanistan and Yemen, the Americans have been involve in spying operations as well as attacking certain objects. Recently these drones have been flying over Iranian borders in an attempt to collect information.
The new technology Iran has attained would in practice disturb the strategy for widespread use of the drones for special information operations by the US military as the Americans would no more remain convinced that they could hold control of their flying objects up to the end of their missions.
Experts believe that confinement of the US military capability in using unmanned plane, would confront the US army with serious tactical and operational problems in the region.
Translated by Hamdollah Emadi Heydari