The US lost at least 45 MQ-9 Reaper drones in its war with Iran, or roughly 25% of its entire fleet, The Washington Post reported on Thursday, one of the many examples of the conflict creating a staggering depletion of US military stockpiles.
MQ-9s are used to conduct surveillance and launch airstrikes and were deployed extensively over the decades for drone strikes in the US War on Terror, which continues today in Somalia, but when used against an enemy with air defenses, the MQ-9 is extremely vulnerable. The US also lost more than 20 MQ-9s during bombing campaigns against Ansar Allah, or the Houthis, in Yemen in 2024 and 2025.
The Post report said that the MQ-9s cost between $30 billion and $50 billion to manufacture, meaning the 45 lost in the Iran war could cost up to $2.25 billion to replace. Throughout the war, MQ-9s have been shot down by Iran, struck by Iranian missiles and drones at US bases in the region, and some have crashed due to communications errors.
Despite the heavy loss of the MQ-9s, Gen. Kenneth S. Wilsbach, the chief of the US Air Force, previously dubbed the drones the “most valuable player” of the US-Israeli bombing campaign, which killed more than 3,400 Iranians, around half of whom were civilians.
“No other platform is even close to the MQ-9” in terms of the number of strikes launched in Iran, Wilsbach told Congress on Wednesday. “It’s an unmanned platform, so we get a lot of utility out of them, and don’t put our folks at risk,” he said.
US MQ-9s continue to fly over the Strait of Hormuz, and on August 3, Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) said that it shot down another one. The threat of the US restarting strikes in Iran is also on the table as long as the US continues enforcing a blockade of Iranian ports and continues its ramped-up deployment in the region.
