US Has Lost 50 Uncrewed Aircraft in 2026, All in the Iran Conflict, GMN Data Shows

The United States has lost 50 uncrewed aircraft since January 1, 2026, according to the GlobalMilitary.net event database, in 34 separately recorded loss events through September 9. Every one of the 50 airframes is attached in the database to the 2026 Iran conflict; none is linked to any other theater.

The losses are almost entirely one type. The MQ-9 Reaper accounts for 32 of the 34 events and 48 of the 50 airframes. The remaining two are a single MQ-4C Triton maritime surveillance aircraft and a single MQ-1 Predator.

By recorded cause, the 34 events break down as follows:

• Shot down: 27 events, 30 airframes
• Destroyed on the ground: 3 events, 3 airframes
• Crash or accident: 2 events, 3 airframes
• Mixed or unstated circumstances: 2 events, 14 airframes

The monthly distribution is uneven. The database records 16 airframes lost in March, 9 in April, 4 in May, 2 in June, 6 in July and 12 in August; September stands at 1, but that month is only nine days old at the time of writing. By location, 23 airframes were lost over Iran, 3 over Iraq, 5 over Gulf waters including the Strait of Hormuz and the Gulf of Oman, and 3 at bases in Jordan and Kuwait. The sources give no location for the remaining 16.

The four most recent individually documented losses are all Reapers recorded as shot down: one on August 3 over the Strait of Hormuz, one on August 14 near Qeshm Island in Hormozgan Province, one on August 31 over the Strait of Hormuz, and one on September 1 near Khomein in Markazi Province.

Three limits apply to these figures. First, this is a count of what GlobalMilitary.net has logged from published sources since January 1, 2026, not an official tally from the Pentagon or any other authority; it is a floor, not a ceiling. Second, two of the 34 entries are aggregates rather than single events. On April 9 the database recorded five further Reapers lost between April 1 and April 9 beyond the individually documented losses; on August 13 it recorded nine further Reapers beyond the individually documented losses, with sources at the time putting the war total at at least 45 Reapers, about a quarter of the fleet. Those two batch entries are why 16 airframes carry no individual location. Third, many of the shootdowns rest on claims made by Iranian forces that the United States has not individually confirmed.

For scale, the GlobalMilitary.net inventory lists 135 MQ-9 Reapers active with the US Air Force and 18 MQ-9A with the US Marine Corps. The European operators of the type in the database are France with 12 active, Italy with 4 active and 6 on order, Spain with 4 active and the Netherlands with 4 active and 4 on order.

No other country comes close over the same period. The database records 20 loss events and 21 airframes for Israel, 2 events and 2 airframes for Saudi Arabia, and 1 event and 1 airframe for Italy. No other country recorded any uncrewed aircraft loss in 2026. That comparison reflects what the database has logged, and coverage of a shooting war is denser than coverage of peacetime operations.

The attrition has now reached below the surface. On September 8, 2026, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps announced it had recovered a US Navy Anduril Dive-LD autonomous underwater vehicle at the entrance to the Strait of Hormuz, an event logged in the naval events tracker. US Central Command said the vehicle had malfunctioned more than a day earlier and carried neither sensitive data nor classified sonar or radar equipment. Anduril confirmed the loss and described the Dive-LD as an attritable system designed for environments where losing the vehicle is an expected possibility.

The waterway itself is tracked separately on the Strait of Hormuz activity page. Every entry behind the figures above, with its date, place and cited sources, is listed in the air force events tracker of losses, crashes and deliveries, which is updated as new records are published.