Iranian military officials on Wednesday said that they would gift to the United Stats one of its new armed drones that was built by Tehran based on technology it acquired from the 2011 downing on a U.S. military drone.
Senior officials in the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) said that if the Obama administration fully lifts sanctions on Tehran, it will consider giving to the United States one of its domestically produced copycat RQ-170 drones, which is based on the U.S. model that Tehran back-engineered in recent months.
"We will not extradite the U.S. RQ-170 drone since it is a (war) trophy, but if the U.S. sanctions against Iran are lifted, maybe we will give the U.S. an Iranian model of the drone," Brigadier General Amir Ali Hajizadeh, the commander of the IRGC's Aerospace Force, was quoted as saying by Iran's state-controlled media.
The IRGC announced that it would begin deploying these drones—which it has test flown in recent days—by March of next year, according to the report.
The Iranian version of the RQ-170 is based on technology gleaned from the 2011 downing of a Lockheed Martin Sentinel stealth drone.
Iran broadcast footage of its domestically produced RQ-170 earlier this week and claims to have weaponized the drone.
"We have plans to bring into operation, at least, four indigenized RQ-170 drones for missions by the end of this (Iranian) year (March 20)," the IRGC's Haijizadeh was quoted as saying by the Fars News Agency.
Iran claims that its version, as opposed to the U.S. one, can conduct bombing missions as well as reconnaissance ones.