Source : BRICS NEWS
TEHRAN Oct 20, 2026 – Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) says it has shot down a US MQ-9 Reaper drone over the Strait of Hormuz, according to a post by BRICS News on X on Tuesday (Oct 20), in what Tehran described as the 54th such drone it has destroyed.
In a statement carried by Iranian media, the IRGC said its Aerospace Force air defences intercepted and destroyed the drone over the strategic waterway in the early hours of Tuesday. The Tasnim News Agency reported that the IRGC said the aircraft, which it described as belonging to the “US terrorist military”, was tracked and brought down by a new advanced air defence system operating under the control of Iran’s integrated air defence network.
The Mehr News Agency, also citing the statement, said the drone was the 54th MQ-9 destroyed by Iranian forces. The semi-official Fars news agency carried the same figure, according to Kuwait’s Arab Times. The claim has not been independently verified, and there was no immediate public confirmation from Washington.
The latest claim is the most recent in a series of Iranian announcements of drone shootdowns since the United States and Israel launched military operations against Iran on Feb 28. On Aug 31, the IRGC said it had shot down another MQ-9 over the Strait of Hormuz, and the IRGC made similar claims in May and July over southern and western Iran. Washington has generally not confirmed or denied individual Iranian claims.
US losses of the drone have nonetheless been substantial. The Washington Post reported on Aug 13, citing three US officials, that the US military had lost at least 45 MQ-9 Reapers during the war with Iran, roughly a quarter of its pre-war fleet. The newspaper said not all of the aircraft were shot down, with an unspecified number crashing after operators lost communication links.
According to the Washington Post, a Reaper costs between US$30 million and US$50 million depending on its sensors and weapons, putting the potential cost of the losses at more than US$1.3 billion. Before the war, the US fleet stood at about 185 Reapers, with about 165 operated by the Air Force and 20 by the Marine Corps. The newspaper said the drones had been heavily used around the Strait of Hormuz but were relatively easy targets because they fly slowly and often at low altitude.
A Pentagon Lead Inspector General report on the operation, published in September, counted as many as 30 MQ-9s destroyed “in various circumstances” between Feb 28 and June 30, according to the drone industry outlet DroneXL and The Jerusalem Post, which noted that further Reapers had been lost since June.
The Strait of Hormuz, a narrow channel between Iran and Oman through which a large share of the world’s seaborne oil passes, has been at the centre of the conflict. According to the Arab Times, Iran effectively closed the strait after the war began, while Washington imposed a naval blockade on Iranian ports. The two sides signed a memorandum of understanding on freedom of navigation in June, but implementation stalled amid disagreements over security arrangements.
The reported shootdown comes amid continuing diplomatic efforts to ease the crisis. Iran International reported that Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said on Sunday (Oct 18) that Tehran’s offer to reopen the strait within seven days, if Washington accepted its conditions, remained on the table, while Qatar and Pakistan have been pushing for an agreement.
At the same time, rhetoric has hardened. US President Donald Trump threatened on Sunday to “soon finish the job” against Iran unless Tehran changed course, and Iran’s newly elected defence minister, Mehrdad Akhlaghi, warned that any further US or Israeli “miscalculation” would trigger a response, Iran International reported. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov visited Tehran on Monday (Oct 19) and called for maritime traffic through the strait to be restored.
Source: BRICS News on X.
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