Iran claims to have a small token of friendship: an Iranian-made copy of a U.S. ScanEagle drone.
“The drone built by the IRGC [Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps] is a symbol of the technical capabilities of the Islamic Iran and today we presented a real model of it as a gift to [Russian Air Force Commander] Lieutenant General Viktor Bondarev and the Russian people,” announced an Iranian general after meeting with Russian Air Force officers in Tehran, according to the semi-official Fars news service.[ http://english.farsnews.com/newstext.aspx?nn=13920729001105]
In February, Iran showed images of a production line for copied ScanEagles, which are purportedly being used by the Iranian military. “In December, Commander of the IRGC Aerospace Force Brigadier General Amir Ali Hajizadeh had said that the recent capture of the U.S. ScanEagle by the IRGC was nothing new as Iran had previously captured a similar drone and even copied it for production,” Fars said.
