A fully armed MQ-9 Reaper unmanned aerial vehicle taxis down the runway at an air base in Afghanistan on its way to another wartime mission. (U.S. Air Force photo/Staff Sgt. Brian Ferguson).
The United States military has lost at least 45 MQ-9 Reaper combat drones, or roughly 25% of its fleet, during its war with Iran, The Washington Post reported on August 13, citing three officials.
The MQ-9, developed by General Atomics, is primarily used by the U.S. military to collect intelligence, but has the ability to conduct pinpoint strikes. The advanced drone can reportedly operate for more than 27 hours and reach altitudes of over 25,000 feet.
A single drone of this type can cost between $30 million and $50 million, depending on its equipment, according to the report. The Post said the potential cost of the lost Reapers exceeds $1.3 billion.
The drones have been heavily used around the Strait of Hormuz but are “relatively easy targets” for Iran and its proxies because they fly slowly and often at low altitudes, the report noted.
Not all of the aircraft were shot down, with one official telling The Post that an unspecified number crashed after operators lost communications links to the drones.
The Air Force fleet had about 165 Reapers, and the Marine Corps possessed 20 before the war began, public budget data and the services showed. Air Force Lt. Gen. David Tabor told the Senate last May that the number of Reapers in service had fallen to around 135.
The scale of losses suggests Iran’s air defense and electronic warfare capabilities are more advanced than U.S. planners anticipated, particularly its ability to counter drones. This marks a shift from earlier conflicts, where similar aircraft operated for years in the region with minimal attrition, meaning defense planners will likely need to revise their threat assessments for any future operations near contested airspace.
For the U.S. military, the losses cut into surveillance and strike capacity in an active war zone, forcing commanders to fly fewer missions or move drones in from other regions. Pulling assets from elsewhere leaves other U.S. commitments, like monitoring in Africa or the Indo-Pacific, with less coverage than before.
Replacing the drones will also take years due to production limits, so the military will likely rely more on changing tactics than on rebuilding the fleet anytime soon.
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