The US military’s most expensive drone just crashed in the sea near China and North Korea. Could this mean the Chinese have gained a technological advantage?
On Monday, a 28 million dollar MQ-9 Reaper drone fell in the Yellow Sea, off the coast of South Korea. This same Yellow Sea also has a coast in China and North Korea. The reconnaissance drone was “performing a routine mission” according to the Air Force’s 8th Fighter Wing. Although, other sources speculated that the drone was surveilling China. The Americans and China are in competition over Taiwan.
This drone is the most advanced and expensive one in the US arsenal. It is giant, with a wingspan of 66 feet (around 20 meters). This means it is extremely slow and can easily get shot down. It makes up for this in endurance and reconnaissance ability. It has a range of 1150 miles and has a large array of sensors. It can relay info back to its base through conventional radio or satellite communications (SATCOM).
According to Korea Times, media reports suggest that the drone lost contact with ground control shortly before it landed in the ocean as a failsafe. Under normal conditions, the MQ-9 can be controlled from nearly anywhere in the world thanks to SATCOM. The fact that the drone lost contact raises the possibility that another country was able to jam it and therefore would have much more advanced technology than we currently know of.
This is not the first encounter where one of these MQ-9 reapers crashed in a sea recently. In 2023, one of the same drones was flying over the Black Sea when it was hit by a Russian fighter jet and fell into the sea. The Reaper was not recovered and it is presumed that the Russians were the ones to take the drone. This leads to the presumption that the Chinese and/or North Koreans worked with the Russians to create a jammer specifically for the MQ-9 using reverse engineered parts from the drone recovered in 2023. The Houthis also shot down 7 of these drones earlier this year, and they aren’t exactly best friends with the United States either. It should also be noted that the drone from Monday fell a mere 400 miles from China and 185 miles from North Korea, further giving evidence that there could be some involvement by these other countries.
Does this mean that the US military has a $28 million dollar useless drone? Only time will tell.
Sources:
https://www.stripes.com/branches/air_force/2025-11-24/reaper-drone-crash-south-korea-19869842.html
https://www.cnn.com/2025/11/24/asia/us-reaper-drone-crash-south-korea-intl-hnk-ml
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/11/25/world/asia/us-drone-crash-south-korea.html
https://www.cnn.com/2023/03/14/politics/us-drone-russian-jet-black-sea
https://www.koreatimes.co.kr/southkorea/defense/20251125/speculation-rises-over-cause-of-us-drone-crash-in-waters-off-korea
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/General_Atomics_MQ-9_Reaper#MQ-9A_Reaper
https://apnews.com/article/houthis-us-warships-red-sea-e6e97a7131c48640ccf74b1916628234
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