Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) said on Monday that it had intercepted and destroyed a US Army MQ-1 drone over the Strait of Hormuz.
According to Iran’s Mehr News Agency, the IRGC said the drone was brought down by a new advanced aerospace air-defence system operating within Iran’s integrated air-defence network.
The IRGC also claimed that the United States had returned the older MQ-1 platform to service after suffering significant losses among its MQ-9 drone fleet.
According to the Iranian force, the MQ-1 — which it referred to as the “Beast of Kandahar” after approximately 20,000 flight hours over Afghanistan — had previously been retired from US military service and replaced by the more advanced MQ-9.
“After the destruction of a large portion of the MQ-9 fleet, the US has been forced to use this drone,” the IRGC said.
The claims regarding the destruction of the drone and losses to the US MQ-9 fleet were made by the IRGC. No US response or independent confirmation was included in the information provided.