A U.S. surveillance drone, which Iranian officials described as “radar-evading”, took off from a base in the Afghan city of Kandahar and entered Iranian airspace briefly before being given a “serious warning” which quickly caused the drone to return to Afghanistan.
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After the identification of the drone, the monitoring and missile systems of the air defense base were put on alert. In December of 2012, Iran’s Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) captured a US ScanEagle drone over the Persian Gulf waters upon its intrusion into the Iranian airspace.
The pilotless aircraft was flying as near as 20 miles (32 kilometers) away from the Iranian airspace, but changed its path after receiving a timely warning from the Iranian forces.
“The close range in which the Iranian ships are circulating near an American destroyer respecting global regulations, in neutral waters, would lead to escalation of the situation”, said William Urban after the incident on Tuesday, a spokesman for the Fifth Fleet of the United States. Gen. Farzad Esmaili said Iran’s advanced air defense radar Nazir, which is capable of detecting small targets at long distances, identified the drone.
Tasnim gave no details on how the Iranian authorities had warned the unmanned drone to leave its airspace.
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Tehran said one of its electronic warfare units brought down the drone with minimal damage.
