CBS: Iran shot down at least two American MQ-1 drones in recent days — CENTCOM declines to comment

Iran has shot down at least two American MQ-1 drones in recent days, according to a CBS News report citing anonymous U.S. officials familiar with the matter. The report marks the first confirmation from American sources of the repeated claims by Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) that it downed U.S. drones over the Strait of Hormuz.

The U.S. military has used two main MQ-1 variants: the Predator, retired by the Air Force in 2018 after long use in Iraq and Afghanistan, and the Gray Eagle, a larger version still in Army service, including special forces. Both are designed for surveillance but can also carry Hellfire missiles. CBS reported that the exact type of the downed drones and where they were shot down remain unclear; if they were old Predators, losing two of them amounts to about $8 million, while each Gray Eagle costs tens of millions.

According to a Congressional Budget Office report released this week, at least 24 MQ-9 Reaper drones have been lost since the start of the war with Iran, at an approximate cost of $720 million, while an MQ-4C Triton maritime drone worth an estimated $150 million was also destroyed. U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) declined to comment to CBS News on Thursday.

The IRGC claimed this past week to have downed several American MQ-1 drones over the Strait of Hormuz, including one over the Iranian island of Qeshm — claims Washington had so far not confirmed.

Source: Al Jazeera