Crashed, harassed, and shot down: It's been a rough year for the MQ-9 Reaper, America's workhorse combat drone

• It's been a tough year for US military's MQ-9 Reaper workhorse combat and surveillance drone.
• The aircraft has been crashed into, harassed, and shot down by US adversaries around the world.
• Most of these incidents have drawn public frustration and condemnation from American officials. 

It's been an annoying year for the US military's go-to drone for combat and reconnaissance: the MQ-9 Reaper. Over the course of the year, America's adversaries have run into and crashed, harassed, and now — as of this week — shot down the aircraft.

In 2023, in hot spots in Europe and the Middle East, the Reaper drone has been used to carry out high-level strikes and collect valuable intelligence for the US military. The drone — which can be well-armed with missiles and precision bombs — is capable of operating at high altitudes for up to 24 hours and carries a price tag of around $30 million. 

The US Air Force says "given its significant loiter time, wide-range sensors, multi-mode communications suite, and precision weapons, it provides a unique capability to perform strike, coordination, and reconnaissance against high-value, fleeting, and time-sensitive targets." An effective platform for strike and surveillance, the unmanned aircraft is widely used, often in areas where rivals and adversaries may opt to mess with it knowing that doing so is less likely to start a fight than actions against a manned asset.

The Reaper's troubles this year began in mid-March, when a Russian Su-27 fighter jet, after repeatedly harassing it, clipped the propeller of an MQ-9 while it was operating in international airspace above the Black Sea. The US military said the collision forced it to crash the drone into international waters below, worsening the already strained relations between Washington and Moscow over the latter's war in Ukraine. 

July saw several different instances where Russian fighter jets harassed the American drones while they were operating above Syria, engaging in behaviors such as dropping parachute flares, engaging afterburners, and flying in close proximity to the US military aircraft. In one case, a Russian Su-35 jet dropped flares on a drone and broke its propeller as it was carrying out a counterterrorism mission against the Islamic State. That aircraft, however, survived the encounter.

US officials voiced frustration in all of these cases, slamming Russia and its pilots for performing what they say are irresponsible, reckless, and unsafe actions.

"The Russian fighter's blatant disregard for flight safety detracts from our mission to ensure the enduring defeat of ISIS. We call upon the Russian forces in Syria to put an immediate end to this reckless, unprovoked, and unprofessional behavior,"  Lt. Gen. Alex Grynkewich, the commander of US Air Forces Central Command, known as AFCENT, said after Moscow's pilot broke the propeller of the Reaper in late July.  

In the most recent troubling incident involving an MQ-9, Houthi rebels on Wednesday shot down a Reaper drone off the coast of Yemen, a US official told Insider following claims from the militant group. The Iran-backed group claimed that it used an unspecified air-defense system to take down the aircraft, which was reportedly flying through international airspace and over international waters. 

It's not the first time the Houthis have shot down an American MQ-9. The militants fired a surface-to-air missile at one of the drones in June 2019, US Central Command (CENTCOM) said at the time. Several days later, they attempted to shoot down another Reaper, but the surface-to-air missile missed wildly by one kilometer.

The Wednesday incident reflects Houthi aggression amid the month-long Israel-Hamas war, during which the militants have fired multiple drones and missiles toward Israel. To counter these threats, the country deployed its high-profile Arrow air-defense system, dispatched fighter jets, and retasked missile ships. A US Navy destroyer in the area shot down several Houthi missiles and drones believed to be headed toward Israel last month.

Throughout the conflict between Israel and Hamas, the US military has maintained a significant force presence nearby, with carrier strike groups in the Mediterranean and now the Middle East and additional combat aircraft on station in the area.

Since the war began, the Reaper has been conducting surveillance flights in the region. The Pentagon confirmed unarmed drones have flown over Gaza to assist in the recovery efforts of the hostages who were abducted by Hamas during its October 7 terror attacks in southern Israel, attacks which killed at least 1,400 people and injured many more, igniting a conflict that has led to further bloodshed in Gaza and heightened tensions in the wider region.