Malfunction likely put US drone in Iranian hands

The unmanned US drone Iran said on Sunday it had captured was programmed to automatically return to base even if its data link was lost, one key reason that US officials say the drone likely malfunctioned and was not downed by Iranian electronic warfare.
US officials have been tight-lipped about Iranian claims that its military downed an RQ-170 unmanned spy plane, a radar-evading, wedge-shaped aircraft dubbed "the Beast of Kandahar" after its initial sighting in southern Afghanistan. The US-led Nato mission in Afghanistan said the Iranians might be referring to an unarmed reconnaissance aircraft that disappeared on a flight in western Afghanistan late last week. But they declined to say what type of drone was involved.
A US government source, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the plane was on a CIA mission. The CIA and Pentagon both declined to comment on the issue. The incident came at a time of rising tensions between Iran and the West over Tehran's nuclear program. The United States and other Western nations tightened sanctions on Iran last week and Britain withdrew its diplomatic staff from Tehran after hard-line youths stormed two diplomatic compounds.
The United States has not ruled out military action against Iran's nuclear facilities if diplomacy fails to resolve a dispute over the program, which Washington believes is aimed at developing atomic weapons. The RQ-170 Sentinel, built by Lockheed Martin, was first acknowledged by the US Air Force in December 2009. It has a full-motion video sensor that was used this year by US intelligence to monitor al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden's compound in Pakistan ahead of the raid that killed him.
Former and current military officials familiar with the Sentinel said they were sceptical about Iranian media reports that Iran's military brought down one of the drones in eastern Iran, especially since Tehran has not released any pictures of the plane. The aircraft is flown remotely by pilots based in the United States, but is also programmed to autonomously fly back to the base it departed from if its data link with US-based pilots is lost, according to defence analyst Loren Thompson, who is a consultant for Lockheed and other companies.
Other unmanned aircraft have a similar capability, including General Atomics' Predator drone, industry sources said. The fact that the plane did not return to its base suggests a "catastrophic" technical malfunction, agreed one industry executive familiar with the operation and programming of unmanned aerial vehicles.