Iranian Army intercepts, shoots down US LUCAS drone over Bandar Abbas

Iran’s Army has intercepted and shot down a LUCAS drone belonging to the US military operating illegally over southern Iran.

The Iranian Army’s Public Relations Department said on Sunday 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.

Major General Ali Abdollahi, Chief of the General Staff of Iran’s Armed Forces, made the remarks on Saturday, while speaking about unsuccessful US attempts to control the Strait of Hormuz, adding, “The US president must only dream of their military and army entering the Persian Gulf again. They will take this wish to their graves.”

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.