According to sources familiar with the matter, the US lost at least 24 Reapers and the number of damaged aircraft could reach 30, including aircraft that were heavily damaged and then had to be decommissioned.
This number is higher than previous estimates. A report by the US Congressional Research Service released earlier this month said 24 Reapers had been lost.
This is a significant loss, equivalent to about 20% of the number of unmanned aerial vehicles that the Pentagon possessed before the conflict.
Many attack drones were shot down by Iranian fire, but some were also destroyed on the ground during missile attacks or accidents, the source said.
The MQ-9 Reaper is a propeller-driven unmanned aircraft manufactured by General Atomics and is no longer manufactured for the US military.
Each is priced at about 30 million USD, equipped with high-power sensors, including cameras. These UAVs can also carry weapons such as Hellfire missiles or JDAM guided bombs.
These UAVs are widely used in the Iranian conflict when military commanders try to limit bringing pilots into dangerous areas. Although the US has caused significant damage to Iran's military capabilities, including weakening or destroying most of the air defense system, some areas of Iranian airspace are still assessed as dangerous.
Ms. Becca Wasser - head of defense research at Bloomberg Economics - commented: "MQ-9 can be considered a type of equipment that accepts depreciation because it has no driver, but they are too expensive, too few in quantity and no longer have a production line, so they cannot be considered materials that can be easily sacrificed.
The hundreds of millions of USD in damage related to Reaper increase the cost of conflict between the US and Israel in Iran, in the context that the two countries have used thousands of high-tech ammunition, including Tomahawk cruise missiles and JASSM-ER.
To date, the US has also lost 2 manned aircraft in Iran's airspace, including 1 F-15E Strike Eagle and 1 A-10 Thunderbolt II. The entire crew has been rescued.
Other losses include 1 E-3 early warning and air-control aircraft, KC-135 refueling aircraft, 3 other F-15s and 2 MC-130J multi-purpose transport aircraft. The cost of replacing these equipment could be up to billions of USD.
In addition, radar systems worth hundreds of millions of USD each of the US have also been lost or damaged.
