Pentagon officials confirm that the US lost a remotely piloted aircraft during a mission over Afghanistan, but they do not confirm that it is an RQ-170, a new stealthy RPA first publicly revealed Dec. 4, 2009. However, unnamed US defense and intelligence officials tell news media that the RPA went down due to a malfunction in eastern Iran. Iran has claimed it shot down an RQ-170.
RTX’s Raytheon unit was able to “significantly” extend the range of the AIM-120 Advanced Medium-Range Air-to-Air Missile using mostly software changes in experimental tests last year, expanding the reach and lethality of the standard U.S. dogfighting weapon, company officials said Sept. 15.
