Iranian drone first over US carrier since 2014

An Iranian drone that flew over a US aircraft carrier last month was the first to conduct an overflight of an American carrier since 2014, according to a US Navy report.
The January 12 reconnaissance flight by the Iranian Shahed drone was the latest in a series of tense naval encounters between forces of the Islamic Republic and the US Navy, including the brief detention of 10 American sailors who strayed into Iranian territorial waters in the Persian Gulf.
All the incidents have come after Iran signed a nuclear deal with world powers including the US, and point to lingering tensions between the two playing out in key waterways used to transport oil.

An internal US Navy report on the incident, obtained by the AP through a Freedom of Information Act request, said it happened as the USS Harry S Truman and the French aircraft carrier Charles de Gaulle were 89 nautical miles southwest of the Iranian port of Bushehr.
The US Navy dispatched a Seahawk helicopter to observe the Shahed-121 drone as it flew over the Truman, a nuclear-powered carrier based out of Norfolk, Virginia. "Shahed" means "witness" in both Farsi and Arabic.
The US Navy taskforce in the area publicly described the drone's overflight as "safe, routine and professional." But the internal report says the Navy's higher command described it as "safe, abnormal and unprofessional," as Iranian drones seldom fly over American carriers.

US and French sailors repeatedly confirmed that the Iranian drone had its "wings clean," the report said. That means it did not carry weapons and didn't pose a risk to the ship, said Cmdr. Kevin Stephens, a spokesman for the U.S. Navy's 5th Fleet based in Bahrain.
"They're operating in international airspace. You can't shoot (it) down; that would be illegal," Stephens said.
Iran's Revolutionary Guard is using similar Shahed-129 drones as ground support to forces fighting on the side of President Bashar Assad in Syria, the semi-official Fars news agency reported last week. The difference between the two models was not immediately clear. Iran also said it deployed Shahed drones during war games near the Iranian holy city of Qom that simulated a capture of Jerusalem's Al-Aqsa Mosque in November.