Iran–U.S. RQ-170 incident

On 5 December 2011, an American Lockheed Martin RQ-170 Sentinel unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) was captured by Iranian forces near the city of Kashmar in northeastern Iran.

[5] The government of the United States initially claimed that its forces in Afghanistan had lost control of a UAV on 4 December 2011 and that there was a possibility that this is the vehicle that crashed near Kashmar.

Stephen Trimble from FlightGlobal assumes UAV guidance could have been targeted by 1L222 Avtobaza radar jamming and deception system supplied to Iran by Russia.

[14][15] American aeronautical engineers dispute this, pointing out that as is the case with the MQ-1 Predator, the MQ-9 Reaper, and the Tomahawk, "GPS is not the primary navigation sensor for the RQ-170...

Media reports indicated that various U.S. officials declined to confirm whether or not the drone in the video released by Iranian state television was authentic.

[18] On 8 December 2011, a senior U.S. official, speaking on condition of anonymity, told The Washington Post that the U.S. cannot be certain the drone shown was real because the U.S. does not have access to it, but also stated that "We have no indication that it was brought down by hostile fire.

[21] On 9 December 2011, Iran lodged a formal complaint to the United Nations Security Council over the UAV violating its airspace.

"[24] On 13 December 2011, Defence Minister of Iran, dismissed the request and said "Instead of apologising to the Iranian nation, it is brazenly asking for the drone back."

[citation needed] In April 2012, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps claimed to have succeeded in extracting the entirety of the data collected by the drone and are currently in the process of building a replica of the aircraft.

[32] The semi-official Tasnim news agency of Iran reported in September 2016 that a UAV named Sa'egheh, similar in appearance to the RQ-170 Sentinel, had been built.

Israeli media reported that the UAV's design was indeed largely based on the RQ-170, IAF Brigadier General Tomer Bar said that the drone was quite advanced and emulated Western technology.

Commander of the Aerospace Division of the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) Brigadier General Amir-Ali Hajizadeh said that all the data on the downed drone was "fully decoded.".