The Race Is Now On To Retrieve The Advance U.S. Spy Drone Brought Down By Iran

US Navy RQ-4A Global Hawk. Erik Hildebrandt/Northrop Grumman/Handout via REUTERS

Ron Ben-Yishai, YNet News: The race is on to retrieve the U.S. spy drone brought down by Iran

Analysis: Pieces of the world's most advanced intelligence gathering UAV are now lying at the bottom of the sea in the Strait of Hormuz; if the Iranians get there first, they could sell the technology to America's enemies and reverse engineer the technology, something they have done before.

The MQ-4C Triton - the drone brought down by Iran over the Straits of Hormuz - is the naval version of the Global Hawk RQ-4, the most technologically advanced intelligence-gathering drone both in U.S in particular and the world in general. This is the first time that the advanced UAV has ever been intercepted.

The significance of its fall into the waters of the Persian Gulf is not just about the loss of tens of millions of dollars. The greatest concern is the fate of the components, in particular the sensors, of one of the most advanced and secret weapons in the United States arsenal.

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WNU Editor: If the drone was shot down in international waters, expect a U.S. Navy presence showing up in the area where the drone crashed within hours (if not sooner). More details on this drone can be read here .... Iran just shot down one of the US military's most advanced drones — it costs more than an F-35 stealth fighter (Business Insider). More here .... Everything We Know About the U.S. Spy Drone Shot Down By Iran's Revolutionary Guard (Gizmodo).

Update #1: CENTCOM is now saying that it was an RQ-4A Global Hawk drone that was shot down, not the advanced MQ-4C.

Update #2: CENTCOM has released a map where the drone crashed (see below).

Map released by the Pentagon showing where it claims the American drone was operating

Graphic: CENTCOM

Update #3: U.S. Navy assets have been dispatched to the debris field (see below).

U.S. NAVAL ASSETS HAVE BEEN DISPATCHED TO DRONE DEBRIS FIELD IN INTERNATIONAL WATERS AFTER IRAN SHOOT-DOWN - U.S. SOURCE (@Reuters)

— Andrew Peng (@TheAPJournalist) June 20, 2019