The Italian Air Force (Aeronautica Militare Italiana: AMI) lost an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) over Libya on 20 November, the country’s Ministry of Defence (MoD) confirmed.
The General Atomics Aeronautical Systems Inc (GA-ASI) MQ-9 Reaper came down while flying over southern Tripoli. While the Libyan National Army (LNA) claimed to have shot the UAV down, posing with the wreckage in images posted on social media channels, the Italian MoD said only that ‘contract had been lost’ with the unarmed aircraft while it was supporting Operation ‘Mare Sicuro’ (Safe Sea), a counter-terrorism mission.
Prior to this loss, the AMI had fielded six MQ-9 Reapers (Predator B) and seven RQ-1 Predator UAVs.
Source: Jane’s 360