IAF’s second-in-command says drone, which was reportedly similar to aircraft seized by Tehran in 2011, was advanced and based on Western technology
The Iranian drone shot down by the Israeli Air Force early Saturday morning appears to have been a relatively new stealth model whose design was stolen from an American unmanned aerial vehicle that was captured by Iran in 2011, according to aviation analysts.
On Saturday night, the Israel Defense Forces released photographs of the destroyed Iranian drone, which further enforced the view that the Iranian drone was a stealth model known as a — Thunderbolt, in English. These images joined video footage distributed by the army of the moments before the drone was shot down.
Tal Inbar, an Israeli aviation expert for the Fisher Institute, agreed with the assessment, but noted that it was not clear from the video or the pictures which specific version of the drone was used.
The design for the Saeqeh, which looks something like a miniaturized B-2 bomber, is largely based on an American RQ-170 Sentinel spy drone, one of which Iran claimed to have shot down in December 2011, when it broadcast footage of the recovered aircraft.
Iranian media reported in October 2016 that the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps had built a new attack drone similar to the RQ-170 Sentinel.
Tehran also said in 2014 that it had successfully tested its own version of the drone. It said it managed to reverse-engineer the RQ-170 Sentinel, which was seized after it entered Iranian airspace from neighboring Afghanistan, and that it is capable of launching its own production line for the unmanned aircraft.
The video footage distributed by the IDF on Saturday showed both the interception of the drone by an IAF Apache attack helicopter and a subsequent airstrike on the mobile container from which it was controlled.
Cruickshank’s and Inbar’s assessments were not immediately confirmed by the IDF, but it did match descriptions of the drones by a top Israeli official.
Brig. Gen. Tomer Bar, the Israeli Air Force’s second-in-command, said Saturday the Iranian drone was quite advanced and emulated Western technology. He added that the drone remained in Israel’s airspace for a minute and a half, before being taken out by a combat helicopter over the city of Beit Shean, near the Jordanian border.
After the UAV was intercepted, Israel targeted at least 12 other sites “including three aerial defense batteries and four Iranian targets that are part of Iran’s military establishment in Syria,” according to a military statement.
Bar said Israel inflicted significant damage on Syrian air defenses, while saying the Israeli response was “the biggest and most significant attack the air force has conducted against Syrian air defenses since Operation Peace for the Galilee” in 1982 during the First Lebanon War.
Syria’s responding anti-aircraft fire led to the downing of an Israeli fighter plane in which two pilots were injured, one seriously and another lightly. Both were being treated at Rambam Hospital in Haifa.
Israel said the drone infiltration was a “severe and irregular violation of Israeli sovereignty,” and warned of further action against unprecedented Iranian aggression.
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