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2019 Iranian shoot-down of American drone

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2019 Iranian shoot-down of American drone
Part of 2019 Iran–United States escalation in tensions
Iran shoots down US RQ-4 Global Hawk surveillance drone.
Iran shoots down US RQ-4 Global Hawk surveillance drone.
Location
Strait of Hormuz[a]
TargetU.S. surveillance drone
DateJune 20, 2019
04:05 IRDT[2]
Executed byIRGC AF
OutcomeDrone destroyed
CasualtiesNone

On June 20, 2019, Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps shot down a United States Northrop RQ-4A Global Hawk BAMS-D surveillance drone[3] with a Khordad-3 surface-to-air missile over the Strait of Hormuz.[4][5][6][7][8] Iran said the drone violated its airspace, while the U.S. said it was in international airspace.[9][10] The incident came at a time of rising regional tensions between the two countries and nearly brought the two nations into an armed confrontation.[11]

Background

Video of the shootdown
See also: Iran–United States relations § 2019 escalation in tensions

The U.S. has been flying surveillance drones to spy on Iran for many years. To accord with international law, such flights must take place in international airspace. Aside from the frequent legal reconnaissance flights, Iran has protested what it alleges are violations of its sovereign air space. It has claimed that two U.S. spy drones crashed in Iran, a Shadow 200 (RQ-7), which it said crashed 37 miles inside Iran in Ilam Province on July 4, 2005, and a U.S. Hermes drone near Khoram Abad, about 125 miles inside Iran, on August 25, 2005.[12] A later program of secret drone flights within Iranian airspace, run by the American Central Intelligence Agency, came to light following Iran's downing of a stealth spy drone inside Iranian territory on December 5, 2011. The program entailed frequently sending stealth drones into Iran.[13]

The U.S. drone involved in the incident was one of just four Broad Area Maritime Surveillance-Demonstrator (BAMS-D) RQ-4 Global Hawks built as predecessors to the MQ-4C Triton, and operated by the U.S. Navy.[14] The BAMS-D flies at high altitude, but is not a stealth aircraft.[14] An MQ-4C Triton has a price of $182 million (including R&D costs).[15]

Location of the incident

Iranian Major General Hossein Salami said that the drone took off at 00:14 local time from a U.S. military base south of the Persian Gulf and flying toward Chabahar. On its return journey, it violated the Iranian airspace near the Strait of Hormuz, he alleged.[16] Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif has said that the drone was at 25°59′43″N 57°02′25″E / 25.99528°N 57.04028°E / 25.99528; 57.04028 when it was targeted at 04:05 local time (23:35 GMT, 19 June).[17] These GPS coordinates put it at 8.3 nautical miles (15.3 km) off Iran's coast, within the 12 nautical miles (22 km) of its claimed territorial waters.[18] The foreign minister alleged that Iranian forces had retrieved sections of the drone from Iranian territorial waters.[18]

Map of the RQ-4A flight path, and an infra-red image of an apparent explosion taken at 19JUN2019 23:39:26 GMT, provided by U.S. CENTCOM

The Iranian account of the drone's location at the time of the shoot-down is contested by the United States. The commander of the Air Force component of U.S. Central Command, Air Force Lieutenant General Joseph Guastella, said the "closest that the drone got to the Iranian coast was 21 miles."[19] Later U.S. Central Command issued a map of the RQ-4A's flight path, showing the attack position as several miles outside Iran's territorial waters, and an infra-red image of an apparent explosion destroying the RQ-4A taken from another aircraft at 25°57′27″N 56°52′39″E / 25.95750°N 56.87750°E / 25.95750; 56.87750, 17.3 nautical miles (32.0 km) off Iran's coast.[20][21] New York Times quoted a senior official in the Trump administration that there were some doubts inside the administration about whether the drone or the P8 Poseidon manned aircraft have actually violated Iranian airspace or not.[22]

On June 21, Amir Ali Hajizadeh, commander of Aerospace Force of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, was quoted by Tasnim News as saying: “Twice we… sent warnings." “Unfortunately, when they failed to reply… and the aircraft made no change to its trajectory… we were obliged to shoot it down.” "With the US drone in the region there was also an American P-8 plane with 35 people on board. This plane also entered our airspace and we could have shot it down, but we did not." Iranians stated that the P-8 had heeded warnings and moved further off the Iranian coast.[23] The P-8 is a naval aircraft that the U.S. uses for surveillance that is equipped with weapons to destroy ships and submarines.[24] Hours later, the Pentagon confirmed the presence of a P-8 Poseidon aircraft close to the incident.[22]

U.S. response

Alleged debris of the drone

Following the incident, U.S. President Donald Trump tweeted that Iran had made a "big mistake". The Federal Aviation Administration warned airlines of a "potential for miscalculation or misidentification" as numerous flights began to be diverted from the Tehran flight information region.[25] Several hours later, The New York Times, citing "multiple senior administration officials involved in or briefed on the deliberations," reported that President Trump had ordered a retaliatory military strike on several Iranian radar and missile sites, but reversed his decision at some point before it was to occur. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, National Security Adviser John Bolton, and CIA Director Gina Haspel were reportedly in favor of a military response and objected to the reversal.[18][26][27]

Trump later confirmed that he aborted an attack, tweeting that he was in "no hurry" to attack Iran and halted his order "10 minutes before the strike" because it was only then that he learned that Iranian casualties were estimated to be 150 killed, which he said was "not proportionate to shooting down an unmanned drone".[28] In a subsequent interview with NBC News, Trump expounded on his decision-making process, saying that though the strike package was "cocked and loaded", he had not given final approval to the operation and added that no warplanes were in the air before the reversal. He reiterated that he did not want war with Iran and was open to unconditional talks with Iranian leadership, but affirmed that they "can't have nuclear weapons" and warned that in the event of a conflict there would be "obliteration like you've never seen before".[29]

The United States requested a June 24 closed-door United Nations Security Council meeting to address the regional tensions with Iran, according to diplomats.[30]

See also

Wikimedia Commons has media related to The Carcasses of the RQ-4 Global Hawk.

Notes

  1. ^ 22 miles from the Iranian coast in the Strait of Hormuz according to the U.S., or 10 miles from the Iranian coast (25°59′43″N 57°02′25″E / 25.99528°N 57.04028°E / 25.99528; 57.04028) according to Iran.[1]

References

  1. ^ Cooper, Helene (June 20, 2019). "What We Know About Iran Shooting Down a U.S. Drone" – via NYTimes.com.
  2. ^ "US confirms drone was shot down by Iranian missile". BBC News. June 20, 2019. Retrieved June 21, 2019.
  3. ^ "Iran shoots down U.S. drone in international space, U.S. officials say". NBC News. Retrieved June 20, 2019. Iranian and U.S. officials have previously delivered conflicting reports identifying the drone as an RQ-4A Global Hawk or its naval variant, the MQ-4 Triton.
  4. ^ Victor, Daniel; Kirkpatrick, David D. (June 20, 2019). "Iran Shoots Down a U.S. Drone, Escalating Tensions". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved June 20, 2019.
  5. ^ "US confirms drone was shot down by Iranian missile". BBC. June 20, 2019. Retrieved June 20, 2019.
  6. ^ "Iran shoots down American drone in "clear message" to U.S." CBS News. Retrieved June 20, 2019. {{cite web}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |dead-url= (help)
  7. ^ "Iran's Revolutionary Guard shoots down US drone". Al Jazeera. Retrieved June 20, 2019. {{cite web}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |dead-url= (help)
  8. ^ Withers, Paul (June 20, 2019). "Iran shoots down US drone in international airspace attack 'we will defend with all force'". Express. Retrieved June 20, 2019. {{cite web}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |dead-url= (help)
  9. ^ "US confirms drone was shot down by Iranian missile". BBC. June 20, 2019. Retrieved June 20, 2019. Iran's Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) said the aircraft had violated Iranian airspace, and that the incident sent a "clear message to America". But the US military insisted the drone had been over international waters at the time, and condemned what it called an "unprovoked attack" by the IRGC.
  10. ^ "Iran shoots down U.S. drone in international space, U.S. officials say". NBC News. Retrieved June 20, 2019.
  11. ^ "US confirms drone was shot down by Iranian missile". BBC. June 20, 2019. Retrieved June 20, 2019. It comes at a time of escalating tension between the US and Iran.
  12. ^ Tyson, Ann Scott (November 8, 2005). "Iran Protests U.S. Aerial Drones". The Washington Post. Retrieved June 21, 2019.
  13. ^ Shane, Scott; Sanger, David E. (December 7, 2011). "Drone Crash in Iran Reveals Secret U.S. Surveillance Effort". The New York Times. Retrieved June 21, 2019.
  14. ^ a b Axe, David. "Iran Knocked Out of the Sky a Very Special U.S. Drone (And Exposed a Key Weakness)". The National Interest. Retrieved June 22, 2019.
  15. ^ "GAO-15-342SP DEFENSE ACQUISITIONS Assessments of Selected Weapon Programs" (PDF). US Government Accountability Office. March 2015. p. 115. Retrieved July 15, 2015.
  16. ^ "IRGC Reveals More Details of Downing US Drone - Politics news". Tasnim News Agency. Retrieved June 21, 2019.
  17. ^ "Iran's Zarif tweets that downed U.S. drone took off from UAE". Reuters. Retrieved June 21, 2019.
  18. ^ a b c Shear, Michael; Schmitt, Eric; Crowley, Michael; Haberman, Maggie (June 20, 2019). "Trump Approves Strikes on Iran, but Then Abruptly Pulls Back". The New York Times. Retrieved June 21, 2019.
  19. ^ Michael D. Shear; Eric Schmitt; Michael Crowley; Maggie Haberman (June 20, 2019). "Trump Approves Strikes on Iran, but Then Abruptly Pulls Back". The New York Times. Retrieved June 20, 2019.
  20. ^ "Pentagon Releases Image Showing Downed U.S. Drone's Flight Path". Haaretz. Reuters. June 20, 2019. Retrieved June 21, 2019.
  21. ^ @CENTCOM (June 21, 2019). "The ISR Flight path and grid plots for the RQ-4A shot down by Iran in the Strait of Hormuz. "This was an unprovoked attack on a U.S. surveillance asset that had not violated Iranian airspace at any time …" – Lt Gen Joseph Guastella, @USAFCENT" (Tweet). Retrieved June 21, 2019 – via Twitter.
  22. ^ a b Shear, Michael D.; Cooper, Helene; Schmitt, Eric (June 21, 2019). "Trump Says He Was 'Cocked and Loaded' to Strike Iran, but Pulled Back". The New York Times. Retrieved June 22, 2019.
  23. ^ Borger, Julian (June 21, 2019). "How a drone's flight took the US and Iran to the brink of war". The Guardian. Retrieved June 22, 2019.
  24. ^ The Times of Israel, 21 Jun. 2019, "Top Iranian General: We Could Have Downed a US Plane with Crew of 35, But Didn’t; Head of IRGC Aerospace Force Says Army Deliberately Avoided Targeting Jet that Accompanied Drone, Claims 2 Warnings Were Given Before UAV Was Destroyed"
  25. ^ "Airlines reroute flights after Iran downs US military drone". Associated Press. June 21, 2019.
  26. ^ Margolin, Josh; Santucci, John; Faulders, Katherine. "President Trump ordered military strike on Iran, but reversed at last second: Sources". ABC News. Retrieved June 21, 2019.
  27. ^ Defense One. June 21, 2019 https://www.defenseone.com/news/2019/06/the-d-brief-june-21-2019/157907/?oref=d-river. Retrieved June 22, 2019. {{cite news}}: Missing or empty |title= (help)
  28. ^ Shear, Michael D.; Cooper, Helene; Schmitt, Eric (June 21, 2019). "Trump Stopped Strike on Iran Because It Was 'Not Proportionate'". The New York Times.
  29. ^ "Trump says he doesn't want war with Iran, but there will be 'obliteration' if it comes". NBC News. June 21, 2019. Retrieved June 22, 2019.
  30. ^ "U.S. requests UN Security Council meeting on Iran – diplomats". June 22, 2019.
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