Originally Posted by
Longeyes
This is part of an article Combat Aircraft October this year....
is this CIA top drone can fly Mach 10 and exit the atmosphere plus hover or a UFO.
‘UFO hunters'
During the last 20 years, IRIAF Tomcats, and especially those of the 62nd TFS, have been scrambled to intercept foreign and unknown aircraft, especially those of coalition forces during Operation ‘Iraqi Freedom' in 2003. In some cases the Tomcats even engaged them, for example during the ‘Way to Jerusalem' war game on April 24, 1997. But the Tomcat's most important combat record in recent times began in 2004. When Iran's suspicious nuclear program was revealed to the public, Western nations, led by the US and Israel, warned it to abandon its nuclear activities. The US attempted to gather information concerning the activities at three important Iranian nuclear facilities: the reactor at Bushehr, an additional reactor in Arak and the fuel enrichment plant at Natanz. A number of reconnaissance UAVs were sent to collect intelligence to help prepare for a possible attack. Due to increased UAV overflights, the IRIAF HQ requested four F-4Es and four
F-14As from the 61st and 62nd TFS at Bushehr to serve as QRA interceptors, 24 hours a day, every day during fall 2004. Meanwhile, four F-4Es from the 31st TFS and four F-14As from the 81st and 82nd TFS were also maintained on alert and were even flown at night under the command of a Boeing 707 command post and an ELINT/SIGINT-configured C-130H. Between them, these monitored local airspace from 20.00hrs to 06.00hrs. According to Iranian sources, the CIA 's intelligence drones displayed astonishing flight characteristics, including an ability to fly outside the atmosphere, attain a maximum cruise speed of Mach 10, and a minimum speed of zero, with the ability to hover over the target. Finally, these drones used powerful ECM that could jam enemy radars using very high levels of magnetic energy, disrupting navigation systems. These machines were spotted several times by IRIAF ground radar sites, ELINT aircraft and airborne command posts, and they even presented some problems for the IRIAF's routine night training flights in Bushehr. Because the intelligence drones created considerable light during their night photography work, they were dubbed ‘luminous objects' by Iranian government media. In several cases, IRIAF F-14s faced them but were unable to operate their armament systems properly. In one case over Arak in November 2004, the crew of an F-14A armed with two AIM-9Js and two AIM-7E-4s spotted a luminous object flying near the heavy water plant of the Arak site. When the beam of the jet's AN/AWG-9 radar ‘painted' the object, both the RIO and pilot saw that the radar scope was disrupted, probably due to the high magnetic energy of the object increasing the power of the reflected radar waves. The pilot described the object as being spherical, with something like a green
afterburner creating a considerable amount of turbulence behind it. The Tomcat crew achieved a lock-on when it was flying a linear and constant flight path. Once the pilot selected an AIM-7E-4 to launch against it, the object increased its speed and then disappeared like a meteor. After similar attempts by F-4Es and F-14As in the Bushehr, Arak and Natanz areas, the IRIAF HQ ordered an end to the missions flown against the ‘luminous objects'. After two years of research on the objects' flight profiles and examination of remnants of a crashed example recovered in 2006 (in both Iran and then by experts in Russia), the Iranian Army specified that they were US intelligence drones. However, the government media in Iran has attempted to cover up all news of them. In 2004 and 2005, when the public spotted the objects near Arak, Ardebil and Sarab, they were described as the planet Venus! At around 04.20hrs on January 26, 2012, an Iranian Air Defense Command radar site near Bushehr identified an unknown aircraft flying towards the area. An F-14A was ordered to scramble. At 04.30hrs it took off from TFB.6, but seconds later the fighter exploded, killing both crew instantly. The reason for the incident remains a mystery, and the aircraft involved was one of the ‘fittest' IRIAF Tomcats, with the lowest flying hours in the fleet.....