WRTCH LIKE A HAWK: One drone down and the new nuance of escalation

摘要

Here's what we know: an Iranian surface-to-air missile system successfully shot down a U.S. Navy variant RQ-4 Global Hawk June 20. Both Iranian and U.S. sources acknowledge the drone was shot down; if there is a dispute, it is about the location of the drone when it was hit and about what happens next. A post-mortem (post-dronem?) analysis of all the trajectories, debris and released footage will be vital to determine the craft's location. As for escalation, it is hard to predict exactly how any situation plays out.