The Iranian Fars news agency reported that the ScanEagle drone was captured “in the last few days” by the naval unit of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.
It offered no details on the location or how it had been seized.
Ali Fadavi, the Revolutionary Guards’ naval commander, was quoted by state TV as saying the unmanned aircraft was now in Iran’s possession.
He said the drone “was conducting a reconnaissance flight and gathering data over the Persian Gulf” and “was captured by the Guard’s navy air defence unit as soon as it entered Iranian airspace”.
He said such drones are normally launched from large warships.
But a US Navy spokesman said no US drones were missing in the Middle East despite Iran’s claims.
“The US Navy has fully accounted for all unmanned air vehicles (UAV) operating in the Middle East region. Our operations in the Gulf are confined to internationally recognised water and air space,” Commander Jason Salata, from the US Navy’s 5th Fleet, said.
“We have no record that we have lost any ScanEagles recently.”
He added that US ScanEagles have been lost into the sea in the past.
The 5th Fleet is based in Bahrain.
If it is confirmed, the incident is likely to escalate tensions between the US and Iran.
The two countries are locked in a dispute over Tehran’s nuclear programme, which Washington and its allies believe is aimed at developing an atomic bomb.
Iran says its programme is peaceful, but the country has come under tough international sanctions.
Last month, Iran said a US drone had violated its airspace. The Pentagon said the unmanned aircraft had come under fire at least twice but was not hit, and insisted the Predator drone was over international waters.
In 2011 Iran said it had brought down a CIA spy drone after it entered Iranian airspace from its eastern borders with Afghanistan and Pakistan.
Tehran later said it had retrieved data from the RQ-170 Sentinel, a top-secret drone equipped with stealth technology.
The ScanEagle, manufactured by Boeing Co, is significantly smaller than the stealth drone.
According to the firm’s website, the drone is 4ft (1.2 metres) long and has a 10ft (three-metre) wingspan.
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iran will be gangbanged, usa can afford to lose drones they have nearly 10000s of them , iran is a dog that only barks but never bites
Is it another embarrassing loss for the U.S. military, or is it Iranian propaganda? Well, the Iranians have the drone as the proof, and the U.S. military explanation that it has lost some drones over the Persian Gulf in the past, and that the Iranians might have dredged it from the bottom of the Gulf seems quite outlandish! Then, there is another fact about the U.S. military: It could never account for all the equipment it has, as well as it could never account for hundreds of $ millions missing every year -especially in war theaters like Iraq and Afghanistan. ABC’s news reporter Sam Donalson revealed years back how the U.S. military could not account of all its equipment and weapons on storage in the U.S.!
There is no doubt that the U.S. military has lost the drone, and that the Iranians are getting better in bringing down U.S. drones. The U.S. military simply doesn’t have the stomach to admit it. If it did, the admission would bestow more prestige and better capabilities to the Iranian military, something the U.S. militaary is reluctant to do. Nikos Retsos, retired professor, USA