On Friday Apr. 3, two U.S. fighter jets were shot down over Iran. The first of the two jets was an F-15E, carrying two members on board, while the second was an A-10 Warthog, carrying only one member. This adds to the tally of 12 confirmed U.S. aircraft that were either damaged or destroyed by the Iranian military.
The F-15E was shot down in the early hours of Apr. 3 by Iranian anti-air, near the Iran-Iraq border. Both of the crew members were able to safely eject from the aircraft after it was hit. The pilot was quickly recovered by U.S. troops, but the other crew member was stranded for more than 24 hours before U.S. forces were able to safely recover him. During those 24 hours where the crew member was missing, the Iranian government put a $66,100 bounty on the missing airman.
Additionally, Iranian’s parliamentary speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf took to X mocking the U.S. search: “After defeating Iran 37 times in a row, this brilliant no-strategy war they started has now been downgraded from ‘regime change’ to ‘Hey! Can anyone find our pilots? Please?’ Wow. What incredible progress. Absolute geniuses.”
The A-10 was shot down in the early afternoon, just under 10 hours after the F-15E. After being hit by Iranian anti-air, the pilot was able to successfully fly out of the hostile Iranian airspace, and towards nearby ally Kuwait. After entering Kuwaiti airspace, the pilot was able to safely eject and was quickly recovered. The aircraft was assisting in the efforts to help find the missing airman from the downed F-15E when it was struck.
This is not the first incident involving U.S. F-15Es being destroyed, as on March 1st three F-15Es were shot down in a friendly fire incident by Kuwaiti Air Force F-18s who mistook the U.S. fighters for Iranian jets, shooting them down. Luckily all six of the crew members on board were able to successfully eject over Kuwait, and be rescued by U.S. forces.
With the loss of the two jets, this adds to the more than $1 billion the U.S. has lost in this war due to damaged or destroyed aircraft. Fortunately, no U.S. lives were lost, keeping the American death total at 15, with six members who died in aircraft related incidents.
All six of the aircraft related deaths came on Mar. 12 when two U.S. KC-135s crashed into each other while mid-air refueling over western Iraq, killing all of the members onboard, and destroying both aircraft.
Due to the weakened fleet of U.S. aircraft, Iran has been able to take advantage of less protected U.S. air bases and successfully strike U.S. bases, destroying four KC-135s and damaging two, which strongly weakens America’s ability to execute long-range missions.
Article by Luke Zamberlan