The Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) has announced that its aerospace force shot down an American MQ-9 Reaper drone over the Strait of Hormuz using a “modern and advanced” air defense system.
The IRGC stated Monday that further details would be announced subsequently.
The downing, confirmed by the IRGC’s official Sepah News outlet, marks the latest in a series of devastating losses for the US military’s premier armed reconnaissance platform.
The MQ-9 Reaper, which the US Air Force has called the “most valuable player” of its campaign against Iran, has suffered catastrophic attrition since the war began in late February.
According to Bloomberg, Iran has destroyed over two dozen MQ-9s since the start of the terrorist US-Israeli war—nearly 20 percent of the Pentagon’s pre-war inventory. At $30 million per airframe, the total damage is estimated at approximately $1 billion.
The Air Force’s operational Reaper fleet has fallen to roughly 135 aircraft, well below its own minimum floor of 189, according to congressional testimony cited by Bloomberg and The War Zone.
General Atomics, the manufacturer, has confirmed that fewer than 10 new airframes remain available for purchase, and the production line for the MQ-9A has been shut down.
The IRGC has documented at least 41 to 42 Reapers destroyed in flight over Iranian territory, over the Persian Gulf, and on the ground at US bases in Kuwait and Jordan.
In the latest wave of its retaliatory Operation Nasr-2, the IRGC reported to have destroyed eight MQ-9s still in canisters at Jordan’s King Faisal Air Base, along with additional aircraft on runways .
“We are exploring options to acquire as many MQ-9A aircraft as possible right now,” Air Force Lieutenant General David Tabor told Congress, acknowledging the urgent need to replenish a fleet that has been systematically dismantled by Iranian air defenses and missile strikes.
The Reaper, designed for low-threat environments, has proven vulnerable against Iran’s layered, domestically produced air defense systems—including the 358 loitering interceptor, which has also been used by Yemen’s Ansarullah forces to down nearly 30 Reapers since 2023.
US officials have conceded that the drone’s survivability in high-threat environments is now in question, even as it remains central to intelligence, surveillance, and strike missions across the region.
