US hunts for a cheaper Reaper after Iran downs ~$1B in strike drones

Leaning on MQ-9 Reapers to keep pilots out of harm’s way has backfired financially: Iranian air defenses have shot down close to 30 of the hunter-killer drones as of May 2026, with some destroyed on the ground in counterstrikes. That trims the Air Force fleet to roughly 135 aircraft and adds up to about $1 billion in losses, given a per-unit price of $30 million (up to $50 million with a full sensor suite). Losses have almost certainly grown since, as tit-for-tat airstrikes have persisted through shaky ceasefires — the IRGC claimed another Reaper kill on July 8.

In response, the Defense Innovation Unit is soliciting a cheaper successor: a drone hauling up to 2,800 pounds of mixed sensor and weapons payloads, with a 2,300-nautical-mile combat radius (8,000 on a one-way strike), matching the Reaper’s mission set. The target is 20 mission-ready aircraft by 2031. General Atomics, which stopped building Reapers for the US in 2025, says it wants the contract and hinted its bid would undercut the original.

The scale of the bet is striking: the Pentagon is requesting roughly $54 billion for drones and autonomous warfare tech in its FY2027 budget — comparable to wartime Ukraine’s entire military budget. Whether contractors can actually deliver capable strike drones at meaningfully lower cost remains an open question.