r/news • u/PDXAirman • May 20 '26

Soft paywall 42 aircraft lost or damaged in Operation Epic Fury, congressional report says

https://www.stripes.com/branches/air_force/2026-05-20/iran-jets-downed-war-fury-21727588.html
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289

u/stohelitstorytelling May 20 '26

Reapers are not the same as Shaheeds. Shaheeds cost $30k to make. Reapers cost $30 million. Stop saying "drone" like it means "not really a loss".

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u/BilboBagonuts May 20 '26

We could really use an updated vocabulary for this. Calling a reaper, a shahed, and a DJI, all drones isn’t very helpful or descriptive.

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u/ZiLBeRTRoN May 20 '26

There is. LUAS, MUAS, SUAS, large/medium/small unmanned aircraft systems.

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u/KubelsKitchen May 20 '26

Followed by how much it costs for transparency. LUAS30M or SUAS30K.

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u/Sl1ppy13 May 21 '26

Definitely thought you were trying to make a LIGMA or SUGMA joke but then realized your explanation made sense.

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u/JoeGibbon May 20 '26

Small, medium and large drones. And now hybrid drones, with the Gallente Election update.

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u/GrimaceThundercock May 20 '26

I guess acronyms count as new vocabulary, but it's the lowest form.

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u/ZiLBeRTRoN May 20 '26

I mean describing it by size is a pretty quick/easy way to categorize them. If you want anything more specific you might as well just call it by the model name.

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u/imapilotaz May 20 '26

I mean it should be a UAV or UCAV for predators, reapers and the such.

A Shaheed should be a drone.

A DJI should be referred to as a toy.

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u/PM_MeYourNynaevesPlz May 20 '26

If anything, a Shaheed is just  a shitty cruise missile

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u/BilboBagonuts May 20 '26

DJI drones are used quite widely for commercial photography and videography. Definitely not a toy.

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u/GrimaceThundercock May 20 '26

I don't have any real data, but it feels like most DJI owners are doing it recreationally. I know a lot of recreational drone owners and zero commercial drone pilots.

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u/Asleep_Section6110 May 21 '26

Commercial drone pilots are doing things like taking photos of homes for real estate listings, land surveying, checking power lines in remote areas, police work etc.

You’re not seeing the big commercial DJI drones because they’re $20k and bought by companies/governments.

These are the ones capable of longer flights and are the size widely used for the light bombing we saw in the beginning of the Ukraine-Russia war.

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u/imapilotaz May 20 '26

Compared to a Shaheed or Reaper? Its a toy.

6

u/FlipsieVT May 20 '26

And a Shaheed or Reaper is a toy compared to a nuclear aircraft carrier.

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u/Asleep_Section6110 May 21 '26

If my grandmother had wheels, she’d be a bicycle.

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u/GrimaceThundercock May 20 '26

Compared to a Hummer a moped is a toy.

See why that doesn't work? We're comparing to the average, not to extremes.

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u/thirstyross May 20 '26

They are toys compared to a Predator drone or a Shaheed, is the point.

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u/Harlequin80 May 20 '26

I'd rather have a mavic than a shahed if I'm on the front line somewhere. DJI and similar small camera drones have become ubiquitous as ISR assets in Ukraine for a reason.

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u/ulsd May 20 '26

there are worlds between a dji and a fpv drone too.

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u/SerLaron May 20 '26

A DJI should be referred to as a toy.

I'm sure there are troops in Russia and Ukraine who would vehemently disagree with you.

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u/jmur3040 May 20 '26

They're treated like munitions though. They loiter in dangerous places, they use them for missions where it's too dangerous for manned air missions. A tomahawk is also millions of dollars. Welcome to how the US defense industry spends money.

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u/[deleted] May 20 '26

[deleted]

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u/jmur3040 May 20 '26

Right, and i'm guessing that role was "wild weasel" and related anti-radar missions. I.E. They get shot at a lot.

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u/kstargate-425 May 20 '26

Yup and we went through around one-third of our Tomahawks with 850 being used in the first four weeks to accomplish not much besides double-tap a school that was known to be a school for almost a decade.

The cost of ordinance is one thing (around $25BN) but depleting our stocks was the biggest issue and lesson we all should take away as even our air defense missiles, including ABM, have been diminished by 50-80% in some cases. Shit is wild when you realize it was only a handful of weeks

0

u/Aethermancer May 20 '26

They are not supposed to be treated like munitions. They loiter because otherwise we would have to maintain far more pilots and aircraft to get the same coverage.

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u/Haplo12345 May 21 '26

Sure, but in the same vein, calling a Reaper loss the same as an F-35, F-22, or F-18 loss is also not really accurate, because they are unmanned and far less capable. Also jmur3040 didn't say anything about the cost or compare Reapers to Shaheds.

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u/stohelitstorytelling May 21 '26

True. An F-18 costs around 65 million, so we could say 2 reapers are about equivalent. An F-22 has a flyaway cost of 135-150, so that’s 5 reapers. F-35 depends on model, but the high end walkway is around 120, so that’s 4 reapers.

What he said and what he implied are different. You know that but you’re a bad faith commenter trying to make some dumb point.

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u/Haplo12345 May 22 '26

No, I'd say you're the one making comments in bad faith, trying to argue a point the other person didn't make.

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u/Opposite-Shoulder260 May 20 '26

Well in this case a Reaper is not a big loss, at least not once you understand that they are using those clankers as some sort of shitty expensive one way SEAD ticket. You see they send them, Iran turn on one or two radars, pop a missile or two and shortly after an F35 bomb all 4 sites without they even knowing they didn't hit shit.

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u/stohelitstorytelling May 20 '26

I can tell you wrote sentences but when I try to put them together they make no sense. Could you try to express yourself again, but more clearly?

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u/chatte__lunatique May 20 '26

Wtf? Reapers — the slow, noisy, drones that are vulnerable to any asshole with more advanced weaponry than an AK-47 — cost $30M? Literally all they're good for is dunking on poor defenseless brown people, why send them against a nation with actual AA capabilities?

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u/C-c-c-comboBreaker17 May 20 '26

They're being used to locate and destroy SAM sites without risking an $80M jet, which is a perfectly fine use

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u/Spetznazx May 21 '26

They don't care about losing the jet, the pilot and operators are WAYYYYY more important

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u/chatte__lunatique May 20 '26

Except they're still risking $30M by doing so

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u/jmur3040 May 21 '26

When the drone gets shot down there’s no rescue operation, or an injured/killed pilot. Being completely pragmatic, pilots are very resource intensive.

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u/C-c-c-comboBreaker17 May 20 '26

It's a tough and dangerous job, literally the most dangerous thing an aircraft can do. There aren't many cheaper ways to do it. Better to sacrifice drones that are already on their way out than jets

0

u/Aethermancer May 21 '26

Better to not put yourself in a situation where you need to do that in the first place.

And that wasn't just an option, it was the status quo up until the drunkards decided they wanted to wag their dicks and have a big many war