U.S. Drone Iran Shot Down Costs Up to $240 Million: Report

Northrop Grumman Corporation Photo

WASHINGTON — The U.S. drone that Iran shot down reportedly costs up to $240 million.

The drone was a U.S. Navy Broad Area Maritime Surveillance (BAMS-D) aircraft, which is the Navy’s version of the RQ-4 Global Hawk. TIME Magazine pointed to a military estimate from 2011 that put the cost of the RQ-4 Global Hawk drone at $176 million.

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A Forbes report indicated that the unmanned drone costs up to $240 million including the research and development costs mentioned in the military’s Selected Acquisition Report.

“This report shows an average procurement cost over the whole program of $122 million in FY 2015 dollars or about $130 million in FY 2019 dollars. That excludes the research and development costs, which are mostly sunk at the beginning of the program. If those were included, the cost per aircraft would increase to about $240 million (FY 2019 dollars),” read the Forbes report.

Trump said on Friday that he called off a retaliatory strike against Iran for shooting down the U.S. drone over casualty concerns.

“We were cocked & loaded to retaliate last night on 3 different sights [sic] when I asked, how many will die. 150 people, sir, was the answer from a General. 10 minutes before the strike I stopped it, not proportionate to shooting down an unmanned drone,” Trump wrote on Twitter.

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