US Defence Secretary Leon Panetta has dismissed Tehran’s claims that it has recovered data from the RQ-170 that went down in Iran late last year.
Without providing details, Panetta said that “based on my experience that I would seriously question their ability to do what they say they have done.”
Iranian officials claimed Sunday that they were reverse-engineering the aircraft and that they had recovered information that the aircraft was used to spy on Osama bin Laden weeks before he was killed.
Panetta, a former CIA chief, was traveling to Colombia Monday morning and spoke with reporters aboard a US military aircraft. His comment echoed previous suggestions from U.S. officials that it would be difficult to exploit any data and technology on the captured CIA stealth aircraft because of measures taken to limit the intelligence value of unmanned aircraft operating over hostile territory.
The U.S. also has disputed Iran’s claims that it brought down the RQ-170 Sentinel and instead says it malfunctioned.
Source: San Jose Military News