Israeli air force shoots down drone aircraft Reuters – 19 hrs ago Enlarge Photo Reuters/Reuters - A still image taken from Israeli Defence Forces (IDF) video footage shows what they say is a small unidentified aircraft shot down in a mid-air interception after it crossed into southern …more RELATED CONTENT Enlarge Photo An Israeli Army helicopter flies … Enlarge Photo An Israeli Army helicopter lands … JERUSALEM (Reuters) - The Israeli air force shot down a droneafter it crossed into southern Israel on Saturday, the military said, but it remained unclear where the aircraft had come from. The drone was first spotted above the Mediterranean in the area of the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip to the west of Israel, said military spokeswoman Avital Leibovich. It was kept under surveillance and followed by Israeli air force jets before it was shot down above a forest in an unpopulated area near the border with the occupied West Bank. Leibovich said it was shot down at about 10 a.m. (0700 GMT), after it travelled east some 35 miles across Israel's southern Negev desert. Defence Minister Ehud Barak praised the interception as "sharp and effective". "We view with great severity the attempt to compromise Israeli airspace and will consider our response in due course," Barak said in a statement. Soldiers, assisted by helicopters, were searching the area for the remains of the drone, which security sources said most likely did not originate from the Gaza Strip. Israel's Army Radio reported the drone was not carrying any explosives. Israeli parliament member Miri Regev, a former chief spokesman of the military, wrote on Twitter it was an "Iranian drone launched by Hezbollah", referring to the Lebanese Shi'ite group that fought a war with Israel in 2006. Defence officials would not confirm Hezbollah's connection to the drone. On at least one occasion, Iranian-backed Hezbollah has launched a drone into Israel. And in 2010, an Israeli warplane shot down an apparently unmanned balloon in the Negev near the country's Dimona nuclear reactor. The Israeli military released a 10-second video clip of what it said was Saturday's mid-air interception. In the video, a small, unidentified aircraft is seen moments before being destroyed by a missile fired from a fighter jet. (Reporting by Ari Rabinovitch and Amir Cohen; Editing by Myra MacDonald)
I saw this last night...posted in the Shoutbox. I guess it depends on what they're calling a "drone." I'm thinking Iran doesn't have such a thing (similar to our drones)...if they did, the sky over Israel would be filled with them. I was kind of thinking this was one of ours, launched from a carrier, and shooting it down was Netanyahooos way of giving the Kenyan the bird.
Iran unveils 'indigenous' drone with 2,000km range Excerpted Section: Iran has unveiled what it says is a new "indigenous" long-range unmanned drone capable of flying over most of the Middle East, state media report. The Shahed (Witness) 129 had a range of 2,000km (1,240 miles) and could be equipped with bombs and missiles, the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps said. It is reportedly capable of carrying out reconnaissance and combat missions. Last year, the Iranian authorities displayed a US drone which they claimed to have brought down electronically. The US insisted that Iran neither shot down the the RQ-170 Sentinel nor used electronic warfare or cyber-technology to force it from the sky. They blamed a malfunction. Later, the head of the IRGC's aerospace programme, Amir Ali Hajizadeh, said it was trying to build a copy of the drone. It is not clear whether the Shahed 129 bears any resemblance. ......... http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-19725990
Analysis: Iran, Hezbollah likely behind UAV trespass Excerpts: Of all the hostile elements seeking to harm Israeli national security, only two have the capability, track record and motivation to send drones into Israeli airspace: Iran and its Shi’ite proxy Hezbollah. ……. With Iranian funds, and likely with Iranian technological assistance, Hezbollah has been trying to build up its UAV capabilities. The latest reminder of this came in July, when an experimental Hezbollah drone crashed in southern Lebanon. During the 2006 Second Lebanon War, Israeli F-16 fighters intercepted a Hezbollah drone packed with explosives that was heading toward central Israel. The small, low-flying aircraft was tracked by the air force as soon as it took off from Lebanon. In September, Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah said his organization could bomb the Dimona nuclear reactor in southern Israel. And last week The New York Times cited classified Pentagon data as indicating that Iran had practiced bombing runs on Dimona and Haifa. In light of this background, it seems reasonable to conclude that Iran and Hezbollah are testing out their latest drone capabilities to see how far they can get into Israeli air space and to test Israeli responses. …… http://www.jpost.com/Defense/Article.aspx?id=286880
Meanwhile, deep inside Hezbollah territory, another drone is launched to test the evil Jew's capabilities.
They need to update their Persian to English dictionary. What they meant to say is: Iran has unveiled "ingenious" long-range drone....
They are just scouting out the air defenses and responses to incursions. Once they have those safe flight paths figured out they will start arming them for missions. Easy missions to succeed at if you practice and do your homework !!