Iran–U.S. RQ-170 incident

On 5 December 2011, an American Lockheed Martin RQ-170 Sentinel unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) was captured by Iranian forces near the city of Kashmar in northeastern Iran. The Iranian government announced that the UAV was brought down by its cyberwarfare unit, which had commandeered the aircraft and safely landed it, after initial reports from Western news sources had claimed that it had been shot down. The United States government initially denied the claims but President Obama later acknowledged that the downed aircraft was a US drone. Iran filed a complaint with the United Nations over the airspace violation. Obama asked Iran to return the drone. Iran is said to have produced drones based on the captured RQ-170, including the Shahed 171 Simorgh and the Shahed Saeqeh.

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