Iran claims to have in its possession an RQ-170 Sentinel drone, a drone of the stealth variety made by Lockheed Martin. According to an unnamed US official it was flying a CIA mission. Iran claims to have brought it down near its eastern border.
According to the LA Times, the Sentinel has the capability to "sniff out" nuclear weapons, "listen in" on cell phone communications and has highly developed sensor and camera technology. Along with this, it is apparently coated in a material that absorbs radar thus rendering it invisible to radar.
Clearly, this stealth technology was all for naught when the "Beast of Kandahar" was brought down in Iran last week. Author Peter W Singer ("Wired for War") said, "It carries a variety of systems that wouldn't be much of a benefit to Iran, but to its allies such as China and Russia, it's a potential gold mine."
Others have said it is not so dangerous for the US as American stealth technology has been in the hands of Russia and China for years and there is nothing recoverable on this aircraft that would be truly groundbreaking for Iran or her allies.
The RQ-170 is a generation ahead of the MQ-1 and MQ-9 Predator drones that are merely propeller powered aircraft, and is widely believed to have a host of classified technology not present on the older drones. The CIA, Pentagon, White House and congressional intelligence oversight committee refused to comment on the incident.
The LA Times reported that the drone is programmed to self-destruct if necessary to save classified technology from falling into enemy hands, but according to Iranian officials the wreckage is mostly intact and the plane did not self-destruct as Iran claims it hacked into the aircraft's controls and took it over. Of course, we may never know the truth of the incident.
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