Iran to reverse-engineer US drone

Xinhua, December 13, 2011

An Iranian lawmaker said Monday that Iran's military intends to carry out reverse-engineering on the U.S. drone brought down by Iran's air defense last week, the local satellite Press TV reported on Monday.

Deputy Chairman of the Majlis' (parliament) National Security and Foreign Policy Commission, Hossein Ebrahimi, said given the scientific capabilities of its military, Iran will replicate the captured U.S. stealth aircraft in the near future, according to the report.

Ebrahimi said that enemies cannot simply confront the Islamic Republic of Iran, since the country enjoys a variety of devices and advanced technologies that they are not aware of.

Meanwhile, another senior Iranian lawmaker, Parviz Sorouri, said Monday that Iran is in the final stage of decoding U.S. drone's software and will reverse-engineer it in the future, the state TV website reported.

Sorouri said that Iran will construct the advanced drone itself after reverse-engineering the U.S. one.

The local Tehran Times daily reported Monday that Saeed Jalili, secretary of Iran's Supreme National Security Council has traveled to Moscow to meet Russian officials over the recent U.S. drone disputes.

Experts said Iran needs Russian or Chinese assistance to decode and reverse-engineer the U.S. drone.

Iranian media reported last week that the Iranian military downed an RQ-170 U.S. reconnaissance drone in the eastern part of the country after finding it transgress its eastern border. The state TV showed on Thursday the footage of the drone.

Iran has urged the United Nations to condemn the U.S. drone's violation of its airspace, saying that Tehran would seek "clear and effective measures" to end such "dangerous and unlawful acts."