American Thinker ^ |
On December 8, 2011, Iran displayed to the world what they claimed was an American RQ-170 Sentinel stealth drone captured by Iranian forces. The story of how it was captured, as told by Iran, seems fanciful. The story told by U.S. officials is not much better. Questions about the loss are many. How could this happen? Was it equipment failure? Operator error? Old-fashioned incompetence? Did Obama wimp out, or was it a purposeful surrender of advanced U.S. technology and intelligence data?
Iran claims that it hijacked the drone by confusing its GPS coordinates and instructing it to land safely inside Iranian territory. UAVs like the RQ-170 Sentinel are constructed with classified materials and covered with advanced stealth coatings. The B-2 Bomber has a 172-foot wingspan and a radar cross-section about the size of a dragonfly or hummingbird. The Sentinel is estimated to be less than half the size of the B-2. Finding it -- much less controlling its encrypted GPS systems -- would be an ambitious task for any hi-tech nation. Much less Iran.
Yet Iran does have it -- and all the secrets it contains. Most likely, targeting data and reconnaissance intel regarding Iran's nuclear and military facilities. Information desperately needed by Israel. And information that the Iranians now have.
President Barack Obama was presented with three options to make sure that the Sentinel did not fall into Iranian hands. Strangely, he rejected all three.
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