How Iran HIJACKED a Top-Secret US Stealth Drone

How did Iran's stealth drone program begin? It started by reverse-engineering one of America's best. This video breaks down the pivotal 2011 incident where Iran managed to capture a US Air Force RQ-170 Sentinel drone.

We'll explore how, according to Iranian claims and Western analysis, the IRGC didn't use a missile, but electronic warfare. By jamming the drone's control link, they forced it into its autonomous return-to-base mode, then reportedly hijacked its navigation to make it land in Iran. From this intelligence coup, Iran's engineers created the Shahed-171 Simorgh, a long-range reconnaissance drone that became the foundation for their entire family of stealth UAVs.

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On December 4th, 2011, An American RQ-170 Sentinel stealth drone, which was in an operational test in Afghanistan, deviated from its course and landed in Iran. This didn't happen by accident. According to the Iranians and Western estimates, the Revolutionary Guards initiated an electronic jamming that disconnected the UAV from its operators, causing it to activate its RTB, return to base. The aircraft navigated with the help of ground-based antenna broadcasts, and the Iranians knew this. so they broadcast with their own antennas, and thus the Sentinel came straight into their hands. Unfortunately, Iran's engineers are masters of reverse engineering foreign technologies, and so the enemy learned how to build a stealth aircraft. And they built many. The first is called the Shahed-171 Simorgh, and it is a boat-for-bolt copy of the Sentinel. It is a long-range, jet-powered reconnaissance vehicle that carries no weapons, with a mission radius of 2,200 km.