The top secret, high-tech RQ-170 Sentinel spy drone that made an unscheduled landing in Iran earlier this month was downed by Iranian cyber specialists exploiting a known navigational weakness. In an exclusive interview with the Christian Science Monitor[video], an engineer now working to reverse engineer the US drone said electronic warfare specialists were able to cut off communications to the aircraft and guide it to a landing in Iran. Using information gleaned from less sophisticated US drones shot down, the engineers confused the GPS system with jamming causing the 'bird' to go into autopilot mode, then communicated alternative navigational information. The craft landed safely in Iran rather than Afghanistan at about the same altitude. A few meters difference in altitude at the landing location caused damage to the drone's undercarriage. A US Navy electronic warfare specialist interviewed said even combat grade GPS systems are susceptible to manipulation. A general in the Revolutionary Guard Corps said that Iran has gone beyond mere jamming of signals to deception of "aggressive systems" including guided missiles flying at much greater speed than a drone. European intelligence sources say Iran shocked the West when it blinded a CIA spy satellite with an accurately aimed laser burst. Iran called the capture of the equipment "a great epic", and it indeed is a propaganda coup against the technological prestige of the United States. It is not Francis Gary Powers, but it is close. By the way,US Person thinks that as soon as the Iranians are done recreating "the beast", you can have the original back, Mr. Obama. Are the United States and its allies the only nations on Earth legitimately allowed to defend themselves with advance technology? Apparently so, as this timeline of saber rattling against Iran's "unacceptable" nuclear program since 1979 shows.