US officials previously confirmed that an RQ-170 Sentinel, otherwise known as a drone, did, in fact, crash land somewhere in Iran. They however weren’t keen to confirm that the footage Iran broadcast on state television yesterday was in fact real. In other news, Russia and China want to inspect the US craft.

US officials have been examining the footage of the supposedly downed Sentinel drone, and have thus far claimed that the one depicted, is not the one that was downed because of inconsistencies with the design of the drone.

What is most likely though, is that Iran probably does have the drone (also dubbed the “Beast of Kandahar”) that is the CIA’s image capturing and communication intercepting device that flies at tens-of-thousands-of-feet above ground.

The craft has been in operation since 2009, and has been used to obtain surveillance reports of Iran’s nuclear operations and other military intelligence.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xd4vGszQhJw

It didn’t take long for Russian and Chinese authorities to request to look at one of the world’s most powerful intelligence assets, but it’s not clear what they will offer Iran for the courtesy.

Elizabeth Quintana, an expert on unmanned air vehicles at the Royal United Services Institute:

The Chinese and the Russians are looking to emulate the US fifth generation fighters. The Chinese are very keen to replicate any American technologies and they are coming along in leaps and bounds.

Tensions have increased between Iran and other western nations over the past few weeks, and even though Iran may not have shown the actual drone that went down, Peter Singer, director of the 21st Century Defence Initiative at the Brookings Institution wisely states the reality of the situation:

What the Iranians are getting from this is symbolic and a shift in the discussion from their nuclear programme and taking over foreign embassies.

They are not able to do a lot of reverse engineering on their own, but they have certain nations they have cooperated with in the past.

Flights from Moscow and Beijing to Tehran have I’m sure been full this week.

Apparently drones can continue operating for extended periods, relaying back live pictures, so we’ll have to wait and see what the US says next.

[Source: Telegraph]