An unnamed U.S. official on Dec. 5 confirmed reports from several Iranian news outlets on Dec. 4 claiming that Iran had recovered a largely intact RQ-170 "Sentinel" unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) in Iranian territory. The RQ-170 is a flying wing design with low-observability characteristics — a stealth UAV — first photographed at Kandahar Airfield in 2007 and confirmed by the U.S. Air Force in 2009. But while it is known to have operated from Kandahar, there is no reason to employ a vehicle with such characteristics over Afghanistan, where there is no hostile threat to UAVs operating at altitudes above 30,000 feet. The United States has long waged a broad, comprehensive ISR campaign in Iran, and the RQ-170 has almost certainly been actively involved in this effort for years. It is thus plausible — and even likely — that it would eventually lose a UAV in these efforts. No matter the circumstances of the crash, that struggle continues.
