Special to WorldTribune.com

WASHINGTON — The United States has assessed that a fault in an
advanced unmanned aerial vehicle led to its crash in Iran.

Officials said the U.S. intelligence community has determined that the
downing of a U.S. Air Force RQ-170 Sentinel earlier this month was the result
of a technical mishap. They said Air Force intelligence dismissed Iran’s
claim to have downed the advanced reconnaissance UAV.

“I will say without hesitation that this came down due to a technical problem,” House Intelligence Committee chairman Rep. Mike Rogers said.

Rogers, who receives regular briefings from the intelligence community, said he has accepted the version given by the Defense Department. The House chairman did not identify the fault that led to the downing of the UAV.

“I am satisfied in this particular case that no outside force brought this drone down,” Rogers told a conference on Dec. 13.

Iran has asserted that its new electronic warfare unit downed the RQ-170 about 225 kilometers from the border with Afghanistan. U.S. officials, however, have dismissed the Iranian version, saying the U.S. intelligence community does not believe that Teheran was capable of operating such advanced technology.

“The one thing I can tell you is we don’t have any indications that the
UAV, that we know we no longer have, was brought down by hostile activity of
any kind,” Pentagon spokesman John Kirby said.

But Rogers did not rule out the purported Iranian capability. He also
said Teheran, which pledged to exhibit captured Israeli unmanned platforms,
could succeed in acquiring new technology through reverse-engineering the
UAV.

“Anytime that folks with ill intentions toward the United States come
into possession of our technology is a bad day for the United States,”
Rogers said.

  House Intelligence Committee, John Kirby, Rep. Mike Rogers, Teheran, U.S. Air Force RQ-170 Sentinel, U.S. intel: ‘Technical problem’ caused crash of U.S. drone in Iran