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A boatload of missiles intercepted by the Royal Navy in the Persian Gulf last year included a drone quadcopter whose hard drive revealed the shipment's origin.

Iranians go to great lengths to disguise weapons and missiles they smuggle to allies in the region.

They do so to avoid leaving evidence they are breaching UN resolutions, hoping to reduce the risk of further sanctions.

But they had forgotten to erase the drone's memory drive.

When British boffins at the Ministry of Defence in London decrypted the drive they found the records of 22 test flights carried out at the Iranian Revolutionary Guards' aerospace headquarters in Tehran.

The discovery explicitly linked the shipment to Iran. It included surface-to-air missiles armed with warheads and jet engines for land attack cruise missiles, wrapped in cellophane bundles.