IKIU-built unmanned plane tested successfully

A team of Imam Khomeini (P) International University airspace experts tested an unmanned plane with range of 240 KM and continuous flight of 3 hour successfully. A young team of airspace scientists of Imam Khomeini (P) International University succeeded in building an unmanned plane, equipped with radar and professional ground-based surveillance station with the ability of sending live videos and aerial photographs, abile to fly 2 kilometers above ground level. The Iranian revolutionary Guards, IRGC, last week displayed an aircraft that it said was a US spy drone downed last week by an 'electronic ambush,' a feat that prompted boasts of Iranian technological prowess in the face of increased hostility from the west. The Iranian state television, IRIB, used its main newscast to unveil the drone, identified as stealth RQ-170 Sentinel made by Lockheed Martin. The drone was shown in a video at an undisclosed location where two men in military fatigues could be seen walking around it. The belly of the plane was covered with banners saying, 'We'll trample America underfoot' and the late Imam Khomeini’s famous quote 'The US cannot do a damn thing.' Brigadier General Amir-Ali Hajizadeh, chief of the aerospace division of Islamic Revolution's Guard Corps (IRGC), told state television that the drone was downed by a joint operation of IRGC and the Islamic Republic of Iran's Army. 'After entering the country's eastern space, the plane was caught in an electronic ambush by the armed forces, and it was downed on the land with the minimum damage,' Hajizadeh said. He said that the drone is equipped with advanced systems for gathering electronic, visual and telecommunication information and possesses various radar systems. Tehran’s access to the US spy drone can strengthen Iranian scientists’ technological programs in building similar advanced drones. US officials said that while they have enough information to confirm that Iran does have the wreckage, they are not sure what the Iranians will be able to gain technologically from what they found. According to these officials, the US built up the air base in Shindand, Afghanistan, with an eye to keeping a long-term presence there to launch surveillance missions and even special spy missions into Iran if deemed necessary in the future. The RQ-170 is one of the more sensitive surveillance platforms in the CIA's fleet. RQ-170 drones have been used in stealth missions into the airspace of other nations, including Pakistan, where surveillance was conducted for months on Osama bin Laden’s compound in Abbotabad, Pakistan before he was killed in a US raid in May.