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The U.S. Navy drone Iran shot down on June 19, 2019, was a Broad Area Maritime Surveillance-Demonstrator (BAMS-D), an RQ-4A Global Hawk built for high-altitude, long-endurance intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance. The United States said it was flying in international airspace over the Strait of Hormuz; Iran said it had entered Iranian airspace. The aircraft’s precise location remains disputed in the sources cited here. Its mission was broad-area surveillance, but no reviewed source identifies what information this particular flight collected. The often-repeated $130 million price is not verified for the lost aircraft.
What was the drone Iran shot down?
The aircraft was a U.S. Navy BAMS-D, short for Broad Area Maritime Surveillance-Demonstrator. It was an RQ-4A Global Hawk, a high-altitude, long-endurance unmanned aircraft system. The U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) identified it as such in its June 20, 2019 statement.
BAMS-D was a surveillance aircraft, not an armed strike drone. TIME described the Global Hawk as unarmed and designed to collect information rather than carry out airstrikes. Its ability to stay at high altitude for extended periods made it useful for observing wide areas.
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What was it designed to observe?
CENTCOM said the aircraft provided real-time intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) over broad ocean and coastal regions. That broad-area maritime role is the basis for descriptions such as “spied on the world”: it refers to the platform’s surveillance reach, not proof that this aircraft watched the entire planet.
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A Global Hawk’s sensors could potentially observe areas beyond the aircraft’s immediate position. Douglas Barrie, a senior fellow for military aerospace at the International Institute for Strategic Studies, told TIME that its sensors could see areas of interest in Iran while the aircraft remained in international airspace. That is a general capability assessment, not evidence that the BAMS-D crossed into Iran or collected information on a named target during this flight. The sources cited here do not identify a particular target or intelligence result from the mission.
High altitude can also serve as a form of protection. Amy Zegart, a senior fellow at the Hoover Institution and Stanford University’s Freeman Spogli Institute, told TIME that altitude was typically the drone’s most important defense. It did not make the aircraft invulnerable: Iran ultimately brought it down with a surface-to-air missile, according to CENTCOM.
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What happened on June 19, 2019?
CENTCOM said an Iranian surface-to-air missile shot down the BAMS-D at approximately 23:35 GMT on June 19 over the Strait of Hormuz. The U.S. command said the aircraft was operating in international airspace. Lt. Gen. Joseph Guastella, then commander of U.S. Air Forces Central Command, called it “an unprovoked attack on a U.S. surveillance asset in international airspace,” as quoted by TIME. That statement expresses the U.S. position; it does not independently establish the aircraft’s location.
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The two governments gave conflicting accounts. Iran said the aircraft entered Iranian airspace; CENTCOM said it was in international airspace when it was shot down. The Congressional Research Service’s 2019 report on U.S.-Iran tensions records both claims. The accounts alone do not resolve the aircraft’s precise position, and the sources cited here do not independently verify radar tracks that would settle the dispute.
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| Source | Claim about the aircraft’s location |
|---|---|
| Iranian government, as summarized by the Congressional Research Service | The aircraft had entered Iranian airspace. |
| U.S. Central Command | The aircraft was in international airspace over the Strait of Hormuz. |
How much did the lost aircraft cost?
The $130 million figure in the original title is not substantiated as the official cost of this particular BAMS-D airframe by the sources cited here. Published estimates differ and do not establish a single comparable price:
| Published figure | What the source says it represents |
|---|---|
| More than $176 million | TIME reported in 2011 that the military put the cost of a Global Hawk at more than this amount. The report does not document this as the price of the BAMS-D destroyed in 2019. |
| $170 million | A separate TIME article described the lost aircraft this way in 2019, without reconciling the figure with the earlier estimate or specifying a common cost basis. |
These estimates refer to different reporting and are not enough to establish the procurement or replacement cost of the specific aircraft. They should not be treated as proof that the lost airframe cost $130 million—or as a definitive alternative price.
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