Most notably, this summer included the June 20 shoot-down of a U.S. RQ-4 Global Hawk over the Strait of Hormuz by Iran. But these events are not entirely uncommon.

Unmanned aircraft have been a part of U.S. military operations since World War II and have led to leaps and bounds in mission capabilities. Drones allow the armed forces to undertake missions that would be too risky or impossible with manned aircraft, and uncertainty as to their presence in future military conflict is all but guaranteed. Countries around the world will increasingly operate on the drone axis, developing capabilities to both employ and combat against drones. After the expensive, high-profile destruction of a Global Hawk in Iran, some historical context of the destruction of U.S. drones by hostile forces is in order.

With that recent context, here is a retrospective of U.S. drones shot down by enemy forces.

June 20, 2019: RQ-9 Global Hawk, Strait of Hormuz

After Iranians shot down this $110 million, 737-sized UAV, the United States was 10 minutes away from a conflict with Iran, CNN reported. The “RQ” designation means that this aircraft does not carry weapons.

June 6, 2019: MQ-9 Reaper, Yemen

This 66-foot-wingspan, $30.2 million, “hunter-killer” drone was shot down by Houthi rebels over Yemen just two weeks before the Global Hawk was brought down. Unlike the Global Hawk, the Reaper’s “MQ” designation means that it carries weapons, which can include Hellfire missiles, Paveway II laser-guided bombs and other guided bombs. Reapers are the primary UAVs used in offensive strikes by the U.S. Air Force, according to military.com. The Pentagon claimed another Reaper was shot down by Houthi forces in August 2019.

March 17, 2015: MQ-1 Predator, Syria

This 55-foot-wingspan, $5 million UAV was likely shot down by Syrian forces during Operation Inherent Resolve, although specifics were not confirmed by the Air Force.

April 7, 1999: RQ-5A Hunter UAV, Yugoslavia

This drone was one of four U.S.-controlled Hunters to be shot down during the 78-day duration of NATO action in the Kosovo war. Hunter flew alongside the Predator and Pioneer drones in the conflict. The early drone was under half of the size of the Reaper and less than a quarter of the size of the Global Hawk and cost $300,000 in 1999, or just over $450,000 today.

1991: RQ-2A Pioneer, Kuwait, Iraq

Of the 34 Pioneers deployed to the Persian Gulf War, only 2 were shot down.

“We think it’s the first electronic capture in history.”

-Adam R. Fein, director of corporate communication at AAI, 1991

The RQ-2A Pioneer was the first modern-style drone flown by the United States. The Pioneer was powered by a 26-horsepower modified snowmobile engine in a 15-foot wingspan frame. In 1991, as a part of Operation Desert Storm, a Pioneer became the first robot to receive a military surrender. Iraqi soldiers surrendered to a Pioneer as it was assessing damage from battleship weapons.

September 11, 1944: Remote Controlled B-17, Germany

This downing was the final attempted execution of Operation Aphrodite, one of the United States’ earliest forays into UAV technology. During World War II, the Air Force modified B-17 bombers to carry large amounts of explosives and be controlled remotely as a way to compete with the more advanced German unmanned aircraft, which included guided bombs. Operation Aphrodite was largely unsuccessful, the first six participating planes crashed off-target without enemy interference and the seventh was shot down. The ninth and final attempt was shot down before it reached its target, U-boat pens in the North Sea.

More information on drone crashes can be found at Drone Wars UK or the Washington Post Drone Crash Database.

The July 2019 report examined the challenge in responding to “gray zone” activity, or operations beyond traditional state actions but below the threshold of escalation, allowing the actor to advance its interests outside of the accepted methods of diplomacy while avoiding military conflict with an enemy.

Such action includes disinformation campaigns, political or economic coercion, cyber operations, activity in space, and proxy support and provocation by state-controlled forces.

As real-world examples, the report specifically cited China’s island-building activities in the South China Sea, Russian campaigns to influence elections, North Korean cyberattacks on businesses such as Sony, and Iranian support of militant groups that provoke enemy forces while Tehran maintains plausible deniability.

Gray zone activity is today making its greatest impact since the end of the Cold War, the report said.

“As power and resources are redistributed among global and regional actors, and as rules and norms are absent, contested, or unenforced, actors find opportunities to take advantage of the contemporary ambiguity in the international system,” the report explained.

As a response, it calls for the U.S. to create policies and strategies, which, despite high-level recognition of gray zone activity as a national security threat, remain nebulous and lead to ad hoc coordination. Such an effort would focus on three areas:

1. Protecting US constitutional tenets

This includes protecting the security of elections, enlisting citizens in the fight against disinformation and political coercion, and protecting the free and fair press, according to the report.

“Most of the competitive U.S. strengths lie outside the confines of the U.S. government. U.S. cultural suasion, economic reach, and information tools come largely from the private sector and civil society,” it said.

2. Promoting economic vitality

This includes maintaining the dollar as the global reserve currency, which enhances the power of U.S. economic sanctions; increasing U.S. market access through free trade and foreign aid, which grows the U.S. economy and provides alternatives to economic gray zone activity by rivals; and supporting the private sector through grants and other investments, the report said. Immigration was also cited in the report as something that contributes to U.S. economic power.

“The United States must also have an immigration strategy that supports its competitiveness in critical innovation fields. Immigration has been a major element of U.S. technological dominance: between 1995 and 2005, more than half of Silicon Valley’s new companies were founded by immigrants,” it said.

3. Advancing U.S. influence

This includes maintaining international rule of law — which constricts opportunities for gray zone activity — building on existing alliances to expand information sharing and cooperation, and using the full breadth of American diplomatic, informational, defensive and economic power, the report recommended.

“A campaign mindset is needed to continually reassess the plan’s assumptions and approaches, searching for shifts within and among them that would argue for an altered course,” the report said.

The two-week multinational training exercise is meant to provide realistic combat experience to pilots in a controlled environment, which increases their survivability on actual combat missions, Senior Airman Eric Fisher said in an email.

The exercise is also an opportunity for airmen from partner nations to improve interoperability and exchange tactics, techniques and procedures, Fisher continued. Red Flag-Alaska takes place at the Joint Pacific Alaska Range Complex, which includes a 67,000 square mile range.

When asked about previous equipment issues at the complex and other Air Force facilities, Capt. Kay Nissen, spokesperson for the 354th Fighter Wing, said the training range and exercise scenarios “sufficiently challenged” participating aircraft and units.

“There continues to be opportunities to improve the capabilities of the training range to ensure participants receive the most realistic combat-like experience to prepare for future operations,” she continued. “This is why the 354th Fighter Wing has prioritized investing in the Joint Pacific Alaska Range Complex, to include standing up a new detachment specifically designated to find those opportunities for improvement so warfighters are ready for the high-end fight.”

Aircraft used in the exercise included KC-135 Stratotankers, F-16 Fighting Falcons, Mitsubishii F-2s, C-130 Hercules, UH-60 Black Hawks, HH-60 Pave Hawks, A-10 Thunderbolt IIs and the MQ-9 Reaper, Fisher said. Airmen were able to use live ordnance and dropped 681,505 pounds of munitions, said Senior Airman Isaac Johnson.

John Sopko presented the findings from a report, “Divided Responsibility: Lessons From U.S. Security Sector Assistance Efforts in Afghanistan,” during a speech Thursday at a NATO conference.

“The first challenge is that after 17 years, there is no single person, agency, country or military service that has had sole responsibility for overseeing security sector assistance in Afghanistan,” he said. While the U.S.-NATO commander is largely responsible for the effort, the commander has no direct authority over civilians participating in the mission, he noted, leading to uneven development of the Afghan security force and hindering the standardization of security sector assistance programs in the country.

Furthermore, countries consistently deploy fewer troops than they actually pledge, he said. These “chronic shortfalls” create their own challenges in the mission, he added.

Countries also place caveats on the use of their forces, such as geographic limits, the inspector general said. “When countries were viewed as withholding their full effort, it created the perception of placing a disproportionate burden on others,” he explained.

One study cited in the report found that Afghan leaders prefer working with U.S. advising teams because those teams are not restricted to specific areas.

But Sopko also discussed the benefits of NATO’s involvement in Afghanistan.

Personnel from other nations possess expertise that would not have been available in a solely American mission, he explained. Czech, Lithuanian and Hungarian advisers provide training on Soviet-style aircraft, such as the Mi-35 and Mi-17 helicopters, and Italian, Romanian and Turkish advisers leverage their police training experience, Sopko added.

Coordinating a multilateral approach is also made simpler under a NATO umbrella, he said.

Mahathir Mohamad said the charges are politically motivated. “As far as we are concerned we want proof of guilt,” he said. “But so far, there is no proof. Only hearsay.”

“We are very unhappy because from the very beginning, it became a political issue on how to accuse Russia of the wrongdoing,” he told reporters. “Even before they examine (the debris), they already say Russia. So it is very difficult for us to accept that.”

Mahathir has a history of anti-West sentiment. In a 2003 address to the United Malays National Organisation, he accused the European race of warmongering, saying European want “to control the world again.”

The Joint Investigation Team, or JIT, is made up of officials from the Dutch Public Prosecution Service and the country’s police, as well as with police and criminal justice officials from Australia, Belgium, Malaysia and Ukraine.

Malaysia’s Foreign Ministry said the country would remain committed to ensuring the investigation’s transparency, credibility and effectiveness, and it urged all parties to cooperate.

The JIT on Wednesday charged three Russians and one Ukrainian with murder. MH17 from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur was brought down on July 17, 2014, over eastern Ukraine by what investigators said was a Buk missile from a Russian anti-aircraft unit. Investigators believe the Ukrainian rebels probably mistook the Boeing 777 passenger jet for a Ukrainian military plane.

At the time of the crash, the region was mired in a conflict between the Ukrainian government and pro-Russia separatists.

“We have taken into account the armed conflict,” said Fred Westerbeke, the chief public prosecutor. “The possibility exists that the suspects wanted to shoot a military plane instead of a passenger flight. Even if that was the original plan, we do hold them responsible for downing MH17.”

Russian officials have disputed the findings of the JIT throughout the process.

“Russia had no opportunity to take part in it, although from the very beginning, from the first days after this tragedy, she took the initiative, tried to become part of this investigation of this monstrous disaster,” Russian presidential spokesperson Dmitry Peskov told Russia’s Tass news agency. “Therefore, our attitude to this investigation is very well known.”

Although a trial is set for March in the Netherlands, it is unlikely the defendants will ever stand trial. Russia has previously denied extradition requests, and both Russia and Ukraine forbid the extradition of their citizens.

The three Russians charged are Igor Girkin, a retired colonel in Russia’s main intelligence agency, FSB; Sergey Dubinskiy, identified as a former employee of Russia’s GRU military intelligence agency; and Oleg Pulatov, identified as a former soldier in military intelligence. Investigators also charged Leonid Kharchenko, a Ukrainian citizen who led a combat unit in the Donetsk region.

Girkin led Russian and separatist forces in Ukraine’s Donetsk region in 2014. He dismissed the accusations in a telephone interview with The Associated Press, saying the “insurgents did not shoot down the Boeing.”

Eileen Ng with The Associated Press contributed to this report.

The prototype Compact Laser Weapons System — or CLaWS — is the first ground-based laser approved by the Defense Department for use by ground troops, the Marine Corps explained.

The program is on a rapid prototyping, rapid delivery track, the service said.

“This project, from start to finish — from when we awarded the DOTC [Defense Ordnance Technology Consortium] contract, to getting all the integration complete, all the testing complete, getting the Marines trained, and getting the systems ready to deploy — took about one year,” said Lt. Col. Ho Lee, product manager for ground-based air defense future weapons systems at Program Executive Office Land Systems.

The Defense Department believes lasers are a more affordable alternative to traditional firepower and that they prevent drones from tracking and targeting Marines on the ground. The release notes the laser is not a standalone weapon, but is meant to serve as part of a larger counter-drone system.

If the prototype is successful, it could be incorporated into fixed-site and mobile capabilities designed to counter unmanned aircraft, the Marine Corps said.

The Army and Navy are also exploring the possibilities of laser technology.

The location of the exercise is significant for NATO as it seeks to counter what it perceives as Russian aggression along the alliance’s eastern flank.

BALTOPS is an annual maritime-focused exercise in the Baltic region involving 18 allied and partner nations.

During the multinational exercise, U.S. Marines assigned to the 22nd Marine Expeditionary Unit and their Spanish counterparts assigned to the 2nd Landing Battalion, Marine Infantry Brigade, landed on the shore using the amphibious dock landing ship Fort McHenry, the release said.

Last month, the United States and Estonia signed a defense cooperation agreement, joining the other Baltic states Lithuania and Latvia in reaching bilateral agreements with the Pentagon on future defense planning.

The flight test collected data on drag and vibration impacts on the weapon and the B-52 Stratofortress carrying it. The AGM-183A Air Launched Rapid Response Weapon did not contain explosives and was not released from the aircraft, the Air Force said.

The service noted that such tests are required for all of its weapons systems during development.

“We’re using the rapid prototyping authorities provided by Congress to quickly bring hypersonic weapon capabilities to the warfighter,” Will Roper, assistant secretary of the Air Force for acquisition, technology and logistics, said in a statement. “This type of speed in our acquisition system is essential — it allows us to field capabilities rapidly to compete against the threats we face.”

The United States is working to catch up to adversaries Russia and China on hypersonic weapons technology.

The Air Force awarded a contract to develop the hypersonic missile to Lockheed Martin Missiles and Fire Control in August 2018.

The missile is scheduled to reach early operational capability by fiscal 2022.

The exclusion, from a letter to the speaker of the House from President Donald Trump, is a change from the same report sent six months ago. The report is required by the War Powers Resolution.

The Republican president and Democrats in the House are currently at odds over military support in Yemen, where “a small number” of U.S. military personnel are deployed, according to the June 11 letter.

The latest letter also reveals that the number of U.S. military personnel in Lebanon has declined by 50 percent since the last report, to 60.

The letter cites the territorial defeat of the Islamic State group in Iraq and Syria, but says that “operations against the continuing terrorist threats emanating from Iraq and Syria remain ongoing.”

The U.S. is coordinating its activity in Iraq with the Kurdistan Regional Government, an autonomous entity in the country — something not included in the previous letter.

Personnel numbers in Jordan have increased from 2,795 military personnel to 2,910, since the last update — the latest in a number of consecutive increases.