TEHRAN -- The Islamic Revolution Guards Corps said on Thursday it had destroyed a U.S. MQ-9 Reaper drone over Qeshm Island, the 53rd such aircraft downed since the start of U.S.-Israeli hostilities, and separately announced it had struck and halted a Togo-flagged oil tanker in the Strait of Hormuz.
The IRGC Aerospace Force said it intercepted the unmanned aircraft at 10:12 a.m. local time using an advanced air-defense system under Iran’s integrated air-defense network. 
It said the total number of enemy drones destroyed since the war began had reached several hundred. Two days earlier, the IRGC announced it had downed three U.S. MQ-1 Predator drones in a single day over the Strait of Hormuz.
The repeated losses have reduced the U.S. Air Force’s operational MQ-9 fleet to approximately 135 aircraft, below the established minimum threshold of 189, according to congressional testimony cited by Bloomberg on May 12. 
General Atomics, the manufacturer, has confirmed fewer than 10 new airframes remain available and production of the Reaper has ceased. Military experts said the shortages have prompted the U.S. Army to deploy older MQ-1 versions.
Acting Defense Minister Brigadier General Majid Ebn-e-Reza said the war has exposed challenges facing U.S. military systems, stating that Patriot and THAAD systems and Tomahawk missiles have struggled against Iran’s missile and drone technologies. 
He said Iran’s deterrence capabilities are now in the hands of young scientists and engineers, and that the pace of development concerns Iran’s adversaries.
Separately, IRGC Navy Commander Rear Admiral Ali Azmaei said the Togo-flagged tanker Trend was struck and stopped after a fire broke out as it attempted an unauthorized passage through the Strait of Hormuz. 
He said the vessel sought to cross “at the instigation and through the deception of the child-killing U.S. military.”
The IRGC Navy said commercial vessels may transit only along routes designated by Iran and only after obtaining authorization and coordinating with its forces. It warned that illegal passage “will have no outcome other than the destruction of the offending vessel.”
Iran has enforced the new arrangements since late February, when U.S.-Israeli hostilities began. Tehran has said it never sought the strait’s closure in principle but that security, coordination and respect for its sovereign rights are non-negotiable.