The aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln on Tuesday launched one of its F-35C fighters to shoot down an unmanned Iranian aircraft that “aggressively approached” with “unclear intent.”
“USS Abraham Lincoln (CVN 72) was transiting the Arabian Sea approximately 500 miles from Iran’s southern coast when an Iranian Shahed-139 drone unnecessarily maneuvered toward the ship,” said U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) spokesman Capt. Tim Hawkins.
The Shahed-139 is a cheap, mass-produced Iranian drone capable of medium altitude, long-endurance (MALE) flight that somewhat resembles the fabled U.S. Predator drone. Iranian state media has always depicted the Shahed-139 as a surveillance drone, but it is an evolution of the Shahed-129 model that was capable of carrying missiles.
“The Iranian drone continued to fly toward the ship despite
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