Iran: Pentagon Rebuts Claim on Drone Iran's claim to have not only replicated but test-flown its version of a sophisticated bat-winged American spy drone captured in late 2011 is a gross exaggeration, the Pentagon said Wednesday. A spokesman, Col. Steve Warren, said at a news briefing that "there is no way it matches American technology," playing down reports in Iran's press that Iranian technicians had reverse-engineered the RQ-170 stealth aircraft, made an exact replica and tested it in flight this week. The original American drone, made by Lockheed-Martin, was captured 140 miles from the border with Afghanistan. American officials attributed the loss of the drone to a technical malfunction. The Iranians displayed it publicly, rejecting President Obama's request that they return it to the United States. A version of this brief appears in print on November 13, 2014, on page A18 of the New York edition with the headline: Iran: Pentagon Rebuts Claim on Drone.