L-Ne · Historical Source Library

News Source Record

# News Source Record

**L-Ne / Open-source news extract** — Original media coverage of unmanned aerial systems.

| Field | Value |
| --- | --- |
| Collection date | 8 December 2011 |
| Platform | Quiet Systems |
| Data label | Open-source news record // LRRK collection product |
| Handling | Public-source material. Image rights require separate verification before publication. |
| Scale | Global |
| Language | English |
| Terms matched | stealth drone; Unmanned Aerial Vehicle; UAV; Predator; Reaper; drones |

## Bibliographic

| Field | Value |
| --- | --- |
| Outlet | BBC News |
| Title | Why Iran's capture of US drone will shake CIA |
| Dateline | — |
| First publisher | yes |
| Original URL | https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-16095823 |
| Archive URL | — |
| Dedup key | 2011-12-08|bbc-news|gardner-cia-rq170-shindand |
| Source grade | A1 |

## Record

**Verified extract — [Fact — A1]** Frank Gardner, BBC security correspondent, wrote that on 4 December, around 140 miles inside Iran from the Afghan border, an RQ-170 Sentinel had fallen into IRGC hands. Built by Lockheed Martin, unveiled at Kandahar in 2009, able to fly to 50,000 ft, it carries no missiles — unlike Predator and Reaper also flying from Afghan bases. The US said the Sentinel malfunctioned, but it is supposed to have a failsafe that automatically steers it back to base if contact is lost. The base "in this case is Shindand in western Afghanistan, a former Soviet airbase from where US-operated drones are used to monitor the movements of Taliban insurgents and smugglers along the long border with Iran." Speculation held it was gathering video of nuclear sites. An intact gleaming white drone on Iranian TV, not wreckage, "tends to back up the claim by Iran that its forces brought down the drone through electronic warfare." Hajizadeh: after entering eastern space "the plane was caught in an electronic ambush by the armed forces and it was brought down on the land with minimum damage." Gardner said Langley analysts must accept some of their most useful surveillance technology was now in the hands of the people they were using it on, and ask whether Iran can intercept transmissions between stealth drones and ground controllers. Russian and Chinese military intelligence officials were, according to Iranian media, taking a keen interest.

**Kinematic object.** Lockheed Martin RQ-170 Sentinel from Shindand; unarmed stealth UAV; Predator/Reaper contrast.

**Coverage frame.** military / incident

## Source integrity

- Why this is treated as an original: named BBC correspondent analysis adding Shindand, failsafe, and CIA-damage frame not on the film page.
- Wire reprint status: Not a wire reprint.
- What was excluded: the same-day film-report page (separate identity).

## LRRK relevance

Watch / Campaign / Kestrel / Control Fabric. A Watch desk would have recorded Shindand as the likely home base, a failed lost-link return, and an EW-ambush claim against a stealth UAV.

*LRRK — security assurance for systems that sense, move, and act.*

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