The US military lost a fighter aircraft over Iran, according to multiple American media reports citing US officials, as well as Iranian reports.
Iran’s Tasnim, a semi-official news agency associated with the country’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, said that Tehran shot down an American fighter jet. Both Iranian and American media reports say that a search for the pilots is ongoing.
The Iranian media report came as photos of debris said to be from an F-15 fighter jet and video footage said to show search and rescue operations with Black Hawk helicopters and a C-130 Hercules aircraft circulated online.
Iranian media outlets have repeatedly claimed successes against US combat aircraft, assertions that US Central Command — which oversees American forces in the Middle East — has quickly disputed in the past.
CENTCOM has not publicly addressed the latest claims and declined to confirm or deny them in response to Business Insider’s questions. The Pentagon and the Air Force also did not comment.
Other aircraft losses in the Iran war
The Pentagon has said that the destruction of Iranian air defenses has given the US air superiority over Iran, creating a more permissive environment for air operations. Even with air superiority, the battlefield is not without risks, though.
US media reports from the New York Times, CNN, and others said that the jet lost in Iran was shot down.
The US Air Force has lost several aircraft during Operation Epic Fury, which began in late February. This, however, marks the first loss over Iran.
At the start of the Iran war, three US F-15s were mistakenly shot down by Kuwaiti air defenses in what CENTCOM described as “an apparent friendly fire incident.” All six crew members survived.
Then on March 12, a US KC-135 refueling aircraft crashed in western Iraq, killing all six crew members. A second American aircraft involved in the incident landed safely.
Iran has also shot down a number of MQ-9 Reaper drones and destroyed or damaged support aircraft on the ground at US bases in the Gulf region, including an E-3 Sentry.
There have also been some close calls. On March 19, for instance, a US F-35 stealth fighter jet made an emergency landing at a base in the Middle East after flying a combat mission over Iran. Reports indicated it was damaged by Iranian fire.
Last week, video footage circulating online appeared to show a US Navy F/A-18 Super Hornet narrowly avoiding being shot down by an Iranian surface-to-air missile.
Meanwhile, roughly 350 US service members have been wounded in the war, though 315 of them have already returned to duty, a military official told Business Insider this week. Six troops remain seriously hurt, while 13 have been killed.
Kelsey Baker contributed to this reporting.
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