Special to WorldTribune.com

NICOSIA — Iran reported details on previous missions and destinations of an advanced U.S.-origin
unmanned aerial vehicle captured in December 2011. Iran has also reported replicating the drone.

In a briefing, Air Force commander Gen. Amir Ali Hajizadeh disclosed details of the RQ-170,
which for years was concealed by Washington.

The general, citing data recovered from the UAV, said the Sentinel monitored the compound of Al Qaida chief Osama Bin Laden, killed by the United States in Pakistan in May 2011.

“The UAV was in California on Oct. 16, 2010, for some technical work and was taken to Kandahar in Afghanistan on Nov. 18, 2010,” Hajizadeh said. “It conducted flights there, but apparently faced problems and [American technicians] were unable to fix it.”

A month later, the general said, the bat-winged RQ-170 was taken to Los Angeles for tests of the aircraft’s sensors. He said the record of visits and tests were found in software decrypted by IRGC.

Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps said it succeeded to
reverse-engineer the U.S. Air Force RQ-170 Sentinel UAV. IRGC said it deciphered software codes of the advanced unmanned platform, employed to spy on Iran.

“We have started producing a copy of the RQ-170 UAV,” the Air Force chief said.
Hajizadeh said IRGC was replicating the Sentinel. He did not elaborate.
“This aircraft is a national treasure for us, and I cannot divulge
information about it,” Hajizadeh said.

“If we had not achieved access to software and hardware of this
aircraft, we would be unable to get these details,” Hajizadeh said. “Our
experts are in full control over sections and programs of this plane. It’s
not that we can bring down a UAV but cannot recover the data.”

In mid-April, Iran’s Defense Ministry reported requests by numerous
countries to examine Sentinel. A senior ministry official said China and
Russia, leading allies of Teheran, have been the most persistent.

“There is almost no part hidden to us in this aircraft,”Hajizadeh said.
“We recovered part of the data that had been erased. There were many codes
and characters. But we deciphered them by the grace of God.”

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