Iran to 'reverse engineer' US drone

[Xithras]

35. The Iranians don't seem to have much interest in building a modern manned air force

But they have been sinking a considerable amount of R&D time into missile systems, including a recently demonstrated ballistic anti-ship guided missile that is capable of sinking a carrier with a single shot. They have demonstrated multiple cruise and guided drone and missile systems in recent years that showcase at least some skill in that arena. I have no doubt that they're looking at the U.S. drone as an incredible windfall, and have no real doubt that they have plenty of engineers who can properly reverse engineer the entire thing.

Keep in mind that Iran only started its attempt to modernize its engineering force in the mid 90's, and that most Iranian engineering students have come here even more recently than that. A student achieving a western masters degree in any of the modern engineering fields would have been in the Iranian workplace for less than 10 years (some much less), and wouldn't be "running things" yet. The skills are there, but they're mostly in junior positions. I expect that, over the next 10-20 years, the current crop of US and European trained engineers will eventually start leading these projects, and we'll see far more modern equipment. They certainly have the will to build it, and they're rapidly modernizing their technological skillset.