US spy drones 'crashed in Iran'

Iran says it has found the wreckage of two US unmanned spy planes on its territory in recent months, accusing the US of violating its sovereignty through illegal overflights.

The Foreign Ministry says Iran "strongly protests against such unlawful acts and emphasises the necessity to observe the principles of international law concerning the sanctity of the sovereignty and territorial integrity of states".

The Pentagon has no immediate comment to the protest, which came in letters to the US Government written months ago but only made public at the United Nations on Monday.

They described the crash of a Shadow 200 RQ-7 drone in Ilam Province last July 4, 60 kilometres from the border, and of a Hermes drone in the Khoram Abad area on August 25, found 200 kilometres inside Iranian territory.

The Foreign Ministry says the investigation found that both of the unmanned aircraft were American.

At one time in my past with the military, I was involved with an unmanned recon drone. It had such a high failure rate it was called 'the crash and splash' program.

But that was when the unmanned drone stuff was still in it's infancy, many moons ago.

The use of RQ-7 in Iraq is well known. For example it was revealed in the following:

"DR. GLENN F. LAMARTIN
DIRECTOR, DEFENSE SYSTEMS
OFFICE OF THE UNDER SECRETARY OF DEFENSE
(ACQUISITION, TECHNOLOGY AND LOGISTICS)

BEFORE THE
HOUSE ARMED SERVICES COMMITTEE
UNITED STATES HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
SUBCOMMITTEE ON TACTICAL AIR AND LAND FORCES

REGARDING
UNMANNED COMBAT AIR VEHICLE (UCAV) AND UNMANNED AERIAL VEHICLE (UAV) March 17, 2004

"The Army has two tactical UAV systems that are operational – the RQ-7 Shadow and the RQ-5 Hunter. Both have been deployed to Iraq since hostilities began on March 19 of last year and are in great demand. Both systems have flown thousands of flight hours and are also being used in new mission areas."

I stand corrected and You are correct, further research after I had posted showed that we in fact do have RQ-7 shadow 200s in Iraq. I still believe that it is unlikely to have been flown into Iran intentionally. The performance capabilities and the mission that it was designed for seem to me to negate its intentional use for any extended range surveillance. It is possible that it was being used in a border interdiction role and got away from the operator.
From the globalsecurity.org web site: "RQ-7 Shadow 200 Tactical UAV
The Tactical Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (TUAV) system is designed as a ground maneuver commander's primary day/night reconnaissance, surveillance, target acquisition, and battle damage assessment system. "
"The air vehicle is intended to provide coverage of a brigade area of interest for up to four hours, at 50 kilometers from the launch and recovery site. The maximum range is 125 kilometers (limited by data link capability), and operations are generally conducted from 8,000 to 10,000 feet above ground level during the day and 6,000 to 8,000 feet above ground level at night."
Some nice photos of it in Iraq can be found at: http://www.primeportal.net/aircraft/shadow_200.htm

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