and disseminate critical data", according to Northrop. In 2013, the U.S. Navy noted quality control issues in the MQ-4C's wings, which Northrop Grumman stated to have fixed by 2016. On 12 December 2019, the U.S. Navy stated that one of its RQ-4A Global Hawk aircraft had been damaged during a takeoff in the Middle East in November 2019. The craft, which cost $123 million in 2015, was estimated by USNI to be valued at $180 million by 2019. On 26 January 2020, VUP-19 deployed the MQ-4C for the first time, with two aircraft sent to Anderson AFB in Guam. Iranian shoot down of drone On 20 June 2019, Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps shot down an RQ-4A drone in the Strait of Hormuz near Kuhmobarak in Iran's southern province of Hormozgan. Iran claimed it was in their airspace, while the U.S. claimed it was in international airspace. Fox News cited an alleged anonymous U.S. official as a source that the drone had been an MQ-4C Triton, but the U.S. Central Command later confirmed it was a (BAMS-D) a prototype version of the RQ-4A drone, developed during the development of the MQ-4C. In total, four of these prototype aircraft were built, and they had been assigned to the Navy's Broad Area Maritime Surveillance (BAMS) program. Operators United States Navy VUP-11- Naval Air Station Whidbey Island, Washington (planned) VUP-19- Naval Air Station Jacksonville, Florida VX-20- Naval Air Station Patuxent River, Maryland Royal Australian Air Force (in production) No. 92 Wing- RAAF Base Edinburgh, South Australia (planned) Specifications (MQ-4C) See also References External links Northrop Grumman BAMS contender web site Boeing / Gulfstream BAMS contender presentation Lockheed Martin BAMS product web site Flight Test Associates web site MQ-004C Triton 2010s United States military reconnaissance aircraft 2010s United States patrol aircraft Single-engined jet aircraft Low-wing aircraft V-tail aircraft Articles containing video clips Aircraft first flown in 2013