Sentinel Iranians Say They Captured Not Only Lost Drone

Posted Dec 15, 2011 by Howard Altman

Updated Dec 15, 2011 at 10:55 AM

The RQ-170 Sentinel unmanned aircraft the Iranians say they captured is making huge news, but it’s not the only “drone” not to come home.

The Army is asking for $25 million in the FY12 budget to replace 20 Shadow RQ-7B tactical unmanned aircraft lost in combat.

Army officials won’t say where they were lost, how or why.

“That’s operationally sensitive,” Wayne V. Hall, an Army spokesman, told me this morning via email.

The Shadow is the “primary reconnaissance and surveillance asset at the tactical level supporting brigade and below fielded to Army [brigade combat teams], full spectrum [combat action brigades] and in support of nonconventional forces,” Hall told me.

The U.S. House of Representatives passed the $662 billion authorization yesterday and the Senate may take it up today.