Iran releases video of shooting down US UAV worth more than 30 million USD

News agency Fars News Iran today said that the US MQ-9 Reaper armed unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) was shot down over the city of Ahvaz, southwest of the country, by a new “advanced air defense system” deployed by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.

In the published video, the MQ-9 Reaper is targeted by an infrared sensor system, before a projectile arrives and explodes. Subsequent images showed a group of people transferring US UAV debris from a boat to shore. It appeared that the MQ-9 had plunged into the water after being hit by fire.

TV channel Al Jazeera On the same day, Iranian officials quoted as saying this was the fourth US Reaper to be brought down in the past 8 days. Iranian officials announced that Tehran has shot down more than 150 Washington UAVs of all types, including about 30 Reapers, since the conflict broke out in February.

This number does not seem to include aircraft destroyed at the base in Iran’s ballistic missile and UAV attacks.

Central Command (CENTCOM), the unit in charge of US military operations in the Middle East, has not commented on the information.

MQ-9 Reaper is a military UAV manufactured by the US General Atomics corporation for the country’s air force. It can fly at an altitude of more than 15,000 m and operate continuously for 24 hours. It can take on intelligence gathering, surveillance, reconnaissance and attack roles. Each MQ-9 has a factory price of about 30-34 million USD.

According to military magazine Air & Space Forces of the United States, this country has 182 MQ-9 aircraft at the end of fiscal year 2025, including 24 aircraft operated by the Air National Guard.

During the period October 2023-May 2025, the Houthi armed group shot down nearly 20 US Reapers, causing an estimated damage of more than 500 million USD.

US media in May quoted sources familiar with the issue as saying that Iran destroyed 30 MQ-9 aircraft in 6 weeks of fighting, equivalent to 20% of the total number of Reaper UAVs the US military owned before the conflict broke out, causing nearly a billion USD in damage.

The US military has not announced losses with the MQ-9A series in Middle East conflicts. General David Tabor, deputy chief of staff in charge of planning for the US Air Force, admitted in June that the service was “concerned with the rate of their attrition”.