QuoteIran fired on an unarmed U.S. drone last week as it was hovering in international airspace, the Pentagon announced Thursday.
Spokesman George Little said the incident, which marks the first time the Iranians have fired on a U.S. drone, occurred Nov. 1 at 4:50 a.m. ET. He said the unarmed, unmanned drone was conducting "routine surveillance" over the Persian Gulf when it was "intercepted" by Iran. He said the MQ1 Predator drone, which was not hit, was not in Iranian airspace.
According to Little, two Iranian jets fired twice, missing on both attempts -- the drone headed away from the Iranian coast, landing safely soon after at an undisclosed location. The Iranian jets pursued the drone for a short period before giving up.
Little said the U.S. government has protested to the Iranians. Asked about how the U.S. could respond, he said: "We have a wide range of options from diplomatic to military."
He would not say whether there were actually plans for a military response. Asked if this should be considered an act of war, Little said he didn't want to get into "legal characterizations" of the event.
Little stressed that the drone was flying 16 nautical miles off the coast of Kuwait in international waters, and never entered the 12-mile limit that would constitute Iranian territory.
Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2012/11/08/iran-fired-at-us-drone-pentagon-says/#ixzz2Bgbi2oUb
Big deal or just Iran testing our resolve? And not to be that guy but is it a coincidence that we are finding out about this after the election?
Meh. I'm kinda surprised the Iranians were even able to track a Predator, let alone sho0t at it. Not a surprise that they missed. It's a small, semi-stealthy target.
Quote from: mirth on November 08, 2012, 09:48:26 PM
Meh. I'm kinda surprised the Iranians were even able to track a Predator, let alone sho0t at it. Not a surprise that they missed. It's a small, semi-stealthy target.
Well, remember that they did get their hands on a Reaper... somehow.
I'm more surprise they took a risk before the election. Probably they were hoping it would rally the nation around Obama and he would be re-elected.
Or maybe they're just stupid.
Or all of the above.
Is it at all weird that the incident took place on November 1st and we're just now finding out about it?
no
Nope.
Quote from: LongBlade on November 08, 2012, 10:08:10 PM
I'm more surprise they took a risk before the election. Probably they were hoping it would rally the nation around Obama and he would be re-elected.
Or maybe they're just stupid.
Or all of the above.
Both?
The only way to find out about something like that is from the military. No reporters hover over the Arabian gulf. So yeah, someone decided to wait to bring it up.