According to U.S. officials familiar with the situation, Iranian forces have brought down at least two American MQ-1 unmanned aircraft within the last few days. The officials spoke to reporters on the condition of anonymity, as they were not authorized to discuss the matter publicly.
The specific region where the remotely piloted aircraft were downed remains unclear, as does the exact variant of the MQ-1 involved. The U.S. military currently utilizes two primary variants of the platform: the Predator, which was a fixture of operations in Iraq and Afghanistan before being retired by the Air Force in 2018, and the Gray Eagle, a larger, Predator-derived aircraft still operated by the Army, including its special operations forces.
These unmanned systems are designed for intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance missions, though they are also capable of carrying Hellfire missiles for striking targets. In the Strait of Hormuz, these aircraft provide U.S. forces with persistent surveillance over the narrow waterway, allowing them to monitor Iranian military activity and track threats to both American forces and commercial shipping.
The financial impact of these losses varies based on the specific model. If the aircraft were the older Air Force MQ-1 Predators, the total loss would be approximately $8 million. Gray Eagles are more expensive, with costs reaching into the tens of millions of dollars depending on the variant. A report released this week by the Congressional Budget Office noted that the U.S. has lost at least 24 MQ-9 Reapers since the beginning of the war with Iran, representing a loss of roughly $720 million. The same report indicated that an MQ-4C Triton was also destroyed, resulting in a loss of about $150 million.
U.S. Central Command, the military unit responsible for operations against Iran, declined to comment on the matter when contacted on Thursday.
