I agree with the possibility of what you describe and raise you one. In the Reagan years, we had a program to respond to the Soviet “Line X” program. It was NOT well-known within the CIA, and only Reagan and a handful of his most trusted CIA contacts knew of it. It permitted high tech designs to be “stolen” by the Soviets but this tech had built-in catastrophic design flaws that resulted in gigantic melt-downs after about a year. If, for example, this is something Petraeus and Panetta recommended as part of a “cheap” Iran strat, I could see it.
I see three possibilities:
1) Failure leading to the drone landing.
2) Iran/China jamming/overiding the controls.
3) Intentional grounding.
In scenario 1, the question needs to be asked why wasn’t the drone destroyed. If remote control failed, so might the self-destruct, but other options are available.
In scenario 2, we are in trouble.
In scenario 3, we have the advantage.