Iranian military officials are claiming victories over the U.S. after allegedly infiltrating command centers and drones.
Brigadier General Amir Ali Hajizadeh, commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps Aerospace Force, told Iranian state television last week that forces were able to successfully hack the U.S. Army Command Center and several U.S. drones flying over the Middle East, the Washington Free Beacon reported.
“Seven to eight drones that had constant flights over Syria and Iraq were brought under our control and their intel was monitored by us and we could gain their first-hand intel,” Hajizadeh said.
The IRGC claimed to have footage captured directly from the drone, which was released to Iran’s Fars News Agency, and allegedly confirms the hack. It’s not known when the footage was taken.
“The footage below shows IRGC’s penetration into US Army’s Command Center, one of the many proofs in support of General Hajizadeh’s remarks,” Fars reported. “The footage shows a U.S. flying drone starts malfunctioning and makes a rough landing in a desert area 10 kilometers away from its base.”
“The footage that displays the IRGC’s penetration into the U.S. spy drone’s intel has been recorded by an IRGC drone flying above the scene,” the report claims.
The initial footage appears to be taken by the U.S. drone as it scans areas of interest before flying off. Then its flight becomes turbulent as it loses control and sinks lower to the ground before eventually crashing.
Then the footage shifts to a drone at a higher altitude as it surveils the crashed drone. Just seconds later and an explosion is seen completely obliterating the downed drone. Fars said a manned U.S. aircraft was dispatched to bomb the drone.
Hajizadeh said the hack was in response to claims that the U.S used third parties to sell faulty missile parts to Iran in an attempt to sabotage its missile program, as The New York Times report. The report alleged that President Trump launched a secret program set on the sabotage, which was responsible for Iran’s two failed rocket launches this year.
“We did this to tell them (the Americans) that you not only failed to achieve your goals, but we infiltrated into your systems,” Hajizadeh said.
Iran likely acquired the means of taking over U.S. drones since it stole the technology in the first place to build their own. They’ve had more than seven years to extract the technology from a highly classified U.S. RQ-170 Sentinel spy drone stolen from the U.S. in 2011.
In 2012, Hajizadeh claimed, “All the intelligence in this drone has been completely decoded and extracted and we know each and every step it has taken.”
