Iranian claims of downing intruding aircrafts operated by United States Air Force are not new as Iranian military is in a habit to claim such things every now and then, but the latest claim of the Iranian military is truly the boldest one. According to Iranian officials, it’s armed forces successfully downed the most advanced stealth drone in USAF’s arsenal – RQ-170 Sentinel solely by electronic jamming. The aircraft crashed near Eastern border and suffered little damage leaving a relatively intact state of the art stealth aircraft in Iranian hands.

The statement said:

“Iran Army’s electronic warfare unit successfully targeted the American-built RQ-170 Sentinel stealth aircraft after it crossed into Iranian airspace over the border with neighboring Afghanistan.”

Interestingly NATO officials in Afghanistan have acknowledged the downing of an Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV), however they didn’t specify any model of the aircraft and simply stated that the drone operators lost control of the aircraft and the matter is still under investigation.

As with many previous claims by Iranian officials, it is highly likely that that this time too no image of the captured drone wreckage would be released. Without the footage or image of the wreckage, it is very difficult to comply with Iranian claims. However, if the claim is right then it is a matter of grave concern for the U.S. military as their most advanced piece of equipment has been destroyed by much inferior Iranian technology.

RQ-170 Sentinel is extremely sophisticated and its existence was not officially accepted until 2009 when it was photographed by various reporters in Afghanistan. Before the official declaration of the existence of the aircraft it was called as “Beast of Kandahar” by the media.

It is indeed true that some drones of USAF have a control link which if broken can make the UAV to either return to base or to maintain its state until the control link reestablishes, but despite being possible in theory that a drone can be jammed by disrupting its control link – no one has ever done it. Now this Iranian claim being the first one in the world wouldn’t get much applause due to lack of evidence on the Iranian side. Moreover, RQ-170 being the most upgraded drone has the ability to easily thwart any possible Iranian attempt to electronically jam it – at least on the paper.

We will keep you updated on this story as soon as any major development happens. Stay tuned!

Check out RussiaToday‘s report over the incident: