2012-08-15 (China Military News from China-defense-mashup) — The latest information unleashed from Chinese Internet says Chinese expert group has come into Iran to research U.S. RQ-170 drone. They have contact with the UAV for twice, the first “contact” lasted about 40 minutes, and the second about four hours and they checked the internal advices. The two sides are still negotiating the details of the cooperation on reverse engineering of RQ-170.

Only 4 days After the RQ-170′s “Capture on 4 December 2011″, Chinese Expert Group had arrived in Iran, rather than the Iran’s defense minister Ahmad Karimpour says Tehran has received requests for Moscow and Beijing on April 19 2012.

The expert group composed by 17 people, of which a total of 11 are technical experts from PLA General Staff, General Armament Department and AVIC, as well as others from Chinese foreign affairs ministry and diplomats in Iran.

www.npr.org... ay-have-limited-benefit-for-iran
"Even if the Iranians have possession of a drone, that doesn't mean they will be able to exploit its technology," says Loren Thompson of the Lexington Institute, a Virginia-based military and security think tank.

www.npr.... org/blogs/thetwo-way/2011/12/12/143597134/u-s-asks-iran-for-spy-drones-return-iran-says-its-extracting-secret-data
"We have asked for it back. We'll see how the Iranians respond," President Barack Obama said during a White House news conference with Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki on Monday.

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Moreover, the software includes classified anti-tamper measures. At least, it’s supposed to, according to the Boeing engineer. “Dumbest thing in the world if it didn’t.”

www.telegraph.co.uk

Iran's foreign ministry was similarly dismissive of Mr Obama's request.

"It seems he (Mr Obama) has forgotten that Iran's airspace was violated, spying operations were undertaken, international laws were violated and that Iran's internal affairs were interfered with," ministry spokesman Ramin Mehmanparast said on Tuesday in his regular media briefing, according to Fars news agency.

"Instead of an official apology and admitting to this violation, they are making this request," he said.

Iranian officials claimed a Revolutionary Guards cyber-warfare unit had hacked the aircraft's controls and brought it down.

US officials have admitted anonymously that the drone was on a CIA spying mission over the Islamic republic when it was captured.

The design lacks several elements common to stealth engineering, namely notched landing gear doors and sharp leading edges. It has a curved wing planform, and the exhaust is not shielded by the wing. Aviation Week postulates that these elements suggest the designers have avoided 'highly sensitive technologies' due to the near certainty of eventual operational loss inherent with a single engine design and a desire to avoid the risk of compromising leading edge technology.

avoided using, “’highly sensitive technologies due to the near certainty of eventual operational loss inherent with a single engine design and a desire to avoid the risk of compromising leading edge technology”.

“It was never a matter of whether we were going to lose one but when,”