“The new U.S. failure in spying operation by this drone demonstrated that the U.S. government, despite its high military and economic power and its dominance on the world political order, is not capable of confronting the Islamic Iran…”-Brigadier General Hossein Salami, Islamic Revolution Guards Corps

04 December 2012, despite the USN insisting that it is not missing any ScanEagle drones (specifically saying all drones were “accounted for” but that doesn’t mean they have them in their possesion, it simply means they know where they are), Iran has put on display something that looks exactly like a ScanEagle.

Earlier U.S. media reports said the Iranian video didn’t allow anyone to see any clear markings. However, the ScanEagle is the only drone that looks the way it does, and most operational drones don’t carry obvious markings anyway.

I watched some U.S. posted videos of the captured ScanEagle and noticed some edited out the parts that showed the sophisticated optical system in the nose of the drone.  The Iranian video clearly shows it, and even shows members of the IRCG gawking at it. However, it is interesting that the IRCG managed to get the just captured drone put on public display so fast.

If the Iranians did not capture a Scan Eagle then they’ve made a detailed mock up of the drone, so detailed that they must have access to data about the Boeing/Insitu drone.