An Iranian lawmaker said Monday that Iran will replicate a captured U.S. drone and produce a better version of the unmanned spying plane for its own use.

"In the near future, we will be able to mass produce it ... Iranian engineers will soon build an aircraft superior to the American (drone) using reverse engineering," said Parviz Sorouri, head of Iran's parliamentary national security committee, according to AFP.
Reverse engineering is the process of discovering the technological principles of a device, object, or system through analysis of its structure, function, and operation.

Among the features of the drone that are expected to be copied are its radar-deflecting paint that makes it hard to detect and optics used to identify a targeted person on the ground.

Sorouri said Iran does not need the help of Russia or China in copying the Lockheed Martin-made RQ-170 Sentinel that Iran claimed it took control electronically to force it down on Dec. 4 while flying over Iran's North Khorasan Province.

Sorouri revealed that engineers are now trying to break the code of the drone's software and retrieve data from the aircraft's database to learn the Americans' covert intelligence and espionage methods and to use it in suing the U.S. for violating Iranian airspace.

The U.S. has admitted that the drone is one of theirs.