Iranian army says it shot down US drone over Bandar Abbas
Iran’s air defense systems shot down a US LUCAS drone over the southern port city of Bandar Abbas, the Iranian army said on Sunday.
The Iranian Army said that the Army’s air defense systems, operating under the country’s integrated air defense network, hit and shot down a US LUCAS drone over Bandar Abbas, a city close to the Strait of Hormuz.
The Low-cost Uncrewed Combat Attack System, or LUCAS, is a one-way attack drone. Its design is a copy of Iran’s HESA Shahed-136. The cost of the drone is claimed to be $35,000 per unit.
This is not the first LUCAS drone that Iranian forces have shot down. Another LUCAS drone was also shot down by the Army in July while flying over southern Iran.
In an announcement on Tuesday, the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) said its air defense forces had intercepted and shot down an American MQ-9 Reaper long-endurance drone over the Strait of Hormuz.
Back in September, Brigadier General Majid Mousavi, the chief IRGC’s Aerospace Force, said the US has developed the LUCAS drone by emulating Iran’s Shahed-136 unmanned aerial vehicle and incorporated it into its military arsenal.
Mousavi highlighted Iran’s diverse fleet of Shahed-class drones, designed for combat, surveillance and reconnaissance missions, describing the country’s indigenous drone capabilities as a major asset in national defense. He also said Operation True Promise 1 set a record for the use of domestically developed drones, which were operated by the IRGC Aerospace Force.
The latest drone presence over Iranian territory comes amid Washington’s repeated violations of the Islamabad Memorandum of Understanding (MoU), reached after 40 days of US-Israeli war on Iran.
The US and the Israeli regime waged their first war of aggression against Iran, which lasted 12 days, in June 2025. Their second aggression began on February 28, 2026, and came to a halt in early April after 40 days.