{"id":1049,"date":"2026-05-24T14:41:54","date_gmt":"2026-05-24T14:41:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/arabnewsmonitor.com\/2026\/05\/24\/iran-wiped-out-fifth-of-us-reaper-drone-fleet-bloomberg\/"},"modified":"2026-05-24T14:41:54","modified_gmt":"2026-05-24T14:41:54","slug":"iran-wiped-out-fifth-of-us-reaper-drone-fleet-bloomberg","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.arabnewsmonitor.com\/?p=1049","title":{"rendered":"Iran wiped out fifth of US Reaper drone fleet \u2013 Bloomberg"},"content":{"rendered":"

30 UAVs worth nearly $1 billion have reportedly been destroyed or damaged since start of the war, with the model no longer being produced<\/strong><\/p>\n

The US military has lost up to 30 MQ-9 Reaper drones since the start of the conflict with Iran, which accounts for nearly a fifth of Washington\u2019s entire pre-war fleet and is valued at close to $1 billion, Bloomberg has reported. The bulk of them were destroyed or seriously damaged by Iranian fire, according to the outlet.<\/p>\n

The MQ-9 Reaper is capable of conducting both reconnaissance and strike missions. A single drone is estimated to cost more than $30 million. General Atomics halted production of the model last year, although variants are still being manufactured for foreign customers.<\/p>\n

In an article on Thursday, Bloomberg, citing an anonymous source, reported that \u201cIran has destroyed more than two dozen MQ-9 Reaper drones operated by US forces since the war began\u201d<\/em> in late February.<\/p>\n

While many of the drones were downed by Iranian air defenses, others were lost on the ground as a result of missile strikes, as well as in accidents, according to Bloomberg.<\/p>\n

\n Read more<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

\n \"RT\"
Mission accomplished? The costly reality behind the US rescue operation in Iran<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/blockquote>\n

The US fleet of Reapers has now fallen to roughly 135 aircraft, considerably below the Air Force\u2019s long-standing minimum floor of 189, according to Lt. Gen. David Tabor, the Pentagon deputy chief of staff for plans and programs.<\/p>\n

Earlier this month, the Congressional Research Service \u2013 the nonpartisan research arm of the Library of Congress that works with open-source materials \u2013 issued a report named \u2018U.S. Aircraft Combat Losses in Operation Epic Fury.\u2019 The document, citing an unspecified \u201cnews article,\u201d<\/em> similarly estimates that the US military had lost 24 MQ-9 Reapers, plus one MQ-4C.<\/p>\n

The tally features a total of 42 US aircraft, including four F-15E fighter jets, an F-35A fighter jet, an A-10 Thunderbolt II ground-attack aircraft, seven KC-135 Stratotanker refueling planes, as well as a helicopter.<\/p>\n

Appearing before the House Appropriations defense subcommittee last Tuesday, Acting Pentagon Comptroller Jules Hurst said that the cost of the military operation against Iran had swollen from the previously projected $25 billion to $29 billion due to \u201cupdated repair and replacement of equipment costs,\u201d<\/em> among other factors.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

30 UAVs worth nearly $1 billion have reportedly been destroyed or damaged since start of…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":1050,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1049","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.arabnewsmonitor.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1049","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.arabnewsmonitor.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.arabnewsmonitor.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.arabnewsmonitor.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1049"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.arabnewsmonitor.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1049\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.arabnewsmonitor.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1050"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.arabnewsmonitor.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1049"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.arabnewsmonitor.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1049"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.arabnewsmonitor.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1049"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}