Last month, a U.S. fighter aircraft tracked and shot down an Iranian drone. Details — first reported by Danger Room — have been elusive, but the U.S. military has now confirmed the incident.

Multinational Forces Iraq spokesman Col. Scott Maw tells Danger Room that coalition fighters intercepted an Iranian unmanned aerial vehicle over Iraqi airspace on Feb. 25. The UAV, an Ababil-3 (pictured here), was “tracked as it crossed the border.”

Coalition aircraft were sent up to visually ID the drone. Finally, they did, and then shot it down “over 25 miles from the Iraq-Iran border.” All told, the UAV was tracked “for an hour and 10 minutes before it was shot down.”

http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2009/03/confirmed-us-do/#ixzz0xTscW8Dm

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad skipped onto a stage yesterday, drew back a blue curtain, unveiled a shiny gold drone, and pronounced it an “ambassador of death” to Tehran’s foes.

Since 2004, a small number of those unmanned aerial vehicles have made their way into Hezbollah’s hands. This, however, would be Iran’s first armed robo-plane. In so doing, state television crows, “Iran broke the military advantage of America” — and prepped the country for the looming days of all-robot warfare.

According to the official word from Tehran, the 13-foot Karrar (’striker”) drone is capable of carrying four cruise missiles. That’s really unlikely. Even smaller-sized cruise missiles, like the Russian Kh-135s, weigh a more than a thousand pounds and are about nine feet long; it’s tough to imagine a relative pipsqueak like the Karrar lugging such a hefty package.