Report Shows 81 US Aircraft Lost, Damaged in Iran War
The tally covers incidents logged since Feb. 28 and draws on Pentagon records, statements from US Central Command (CENTCOM), military inspector general findings and press accounts.
Unmanned aircraft account for the heaviest losses. Forty-five MQ-9 Reaper drones and three MQ-1 multi-role aircraft were shot down, and an MQ-4C Triton crashed in a flight mishap.
Crewed combat jets were also hit hard. Twelve F-15E Strike Eagles were affected: friendly fire destroyed three over Kuwait, one was downed over Iran, and eight sustained light damage in an Iranian missile strike on Muwaffaq Salti Air Base in Jordan before returning to service. Iranian ground fire damaged an F-35A Lightning II, and two A-10 Thunderbolt II attack jets were lost or severely damaged.
Support aircraft took heavy losses too. Seven KC-135 Stratotanker refueling planes were affected. One crashed in Iraq, killing all six crew members, and five were reportedly damaged on the ground in Saudi Arabia. An E-3 Sentry early warning aircraft took a direct hit, and two MC-130J special operations transports were deliberately destroyed during a rescue mission. Seven military helicopters, including AH-64 Apache and AH-6 Little Bird models, were lost or damaged.
The figures emerge as the financial cost of the war, which opened Feb. 28 with coordinated US-Israeli strikes, continues to climb. A September report from the Lead Inspector General put total campaign costs at $33.4 billion through late June, including $3.7 billion in equipment losses. The Congressional Budget Office projected hardware replacement costs of up to $3.3 billion.
The Congressional Research Service cautioned that the aircraft count could change because of classification, ongoing combat and questions of attribution.
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