A U.S. drone was fired at by an Iranian aircraft over the Persian Gulf.
The incident happened on November 1. It was not announced sooner because the military does not discuss classified surveillance missions. They did agree to answer questions after the news found out about the incident, according to The Associated Press.
CNN reports, the drone was on a routine surveillance flight over international airspace more than 16 miles off the coast of Iran.
“Our aircraft was never in Iranian airspace. It was always flying in international air space. The recognized limit is 12 nautical miles off the coast and we never entered the 12 nautical mile limit,” Pentagon Press Secretary George Little said.
The Su-25 did fire two bursts of gunfire at the Predator. As the drone started to move away, the Iranian aircraft chased it and eventually went away and returned to Iran. The video camera on the drone captured the incident. There were never any successful hits to the Predator.
Little said there was no aircraft close by to respond to the attack but he believes Iran was trying to shoot down the drone. This is not the first time this has happened.
In December of 2011, the RQ-170 Sentinel drone was captured in eastern Iran. Iranians claimed they shot it down while the U.S. said it malfunctioned.
This drone was monitoring Iran’s military and nuclear facilities. Iran refused to give the drone back and released pictures of Iranian officials studying the aircraft.
https://tothecenter.com/2012/11/iranian-jets-were-unsuccessful-at-firing-down-a-u-s-drone/
