00:00Let's get you that news break.
00:02Iranian media has now claimed an advanced U.S. drone has been shot down.
00:08Reports suggesting that Iranian Air Defense Forces shot down an advanced American MQ-9
00:15Ripple drone near one of the cities in western Iran.
00:19Iranian media has also put out an image, that's the picture on your screens there,
00:23of the destroyed U.S. drone.
00:25Now, there are a lot of claims, counterclaims doing the rounds,
00:28looking at that picture that Iran has put out.
00:32This is the evidence that they say of the drone being destroyed.
00:37Sandeep, explain this to us.
00:38First of all, of course, just looking at that debris,
00:40quite difficult to really tell if it is indeed a U.S. drone.
00:44But run us through the significance of something like this,
00:46that an advanced American MQ-9 Reaper drone has been shot down, if it has indeed been.
00:51Well, if those visuals are correct, Akshita,
00:54then that is indeed the first MQ-9 that Iran has shot down as part of this conflict.
01:00There have been reports of Iran bringing down several advanced drones as well.
01:06A global hawk is believed to have been brought down some months back.
01:10But this conflict has actually shown up this particular platform, Akshita.
01:14The Houthis have succeeded in shooting down several of these MQ-9 drones, the Reaper drones.
01:21Now, they are designed for an entirely different kind of conflict.
01:23They made their debut during the global war on terror
01:26that the United States waged from 2001 to about 2021,
01:30where they were used for a lot of high-profile assassinations.
01:34These Reaper drones were carrying Hellfire missiles.
01:37And based on intelligence, they could go and pinpoint the location of people and assassinate them.
01:43So that's what they were used for, the drone strikes.
01:46It actually originated from drones like this.
01:49But this one was clearly, seemed to be a reconnaissance drone.
01:52It is a very capable platform.
01:54It's almost the one-of-a-kind.
01:56India has also gone in for several of these.
01:59We are planning to buy them for all three services.
02:01There's a very large package of over $3 billion that we're spending to buy 20 or 30 of these drones.
02:08It is what is called a high-altitude, long-endurance drone,
02:13which means that it can stay in orbit for like 27 hours or so, more than a day.
02:21So it's a very capable, long-endurance, high-impact platform.
02:27It carries a variety of sensors.
02:29It's literally the size of an aircraft, except that it's unmanned.
02:32But the fact that Iran has brought it down, I think the bigger picture here is that Iran retains some
02:38element of air defense capability,
02:40which it can use to target drones.
02:44Because it's been under unprecedented attack over the last six days.
02:48Most of its air defenses have been neutralized.
02:50But this shows, if these visuals are correct, this shows that it retains some element of capability to attack aircraft
03:01and drones, Akshita.
03:03Okay.
03:03Thanks very much, Sandeep, for joining us with those details.
03:06Iran claiming that they've now shot down a Reaper drone.
03:09As Sandeep tells us, it's largely a Recon drone that's now been targeted by Iran.
03:14That's a picture that they've released.
03:15Iran is released as evidence, saying that's the debris of the MQ-9 drone by America.
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