U.S. forces are continuing search operations for a missing crew member from an F-15 fighter jet shot down over Iran, according to CNN, as the scale of American aircraft losses in the war becomes clearer.
U.S. losses grow as F-15 downed over iran
The downing of the F-15, alongside the loss of an A-10 in a separate incident near the Strait of Hormuz, brings the number of U.S. manned aircraft destroyed during the war to at least seven, a U.S. official told CNN.
One of the two crew members aboard the F-15 has been rescued, while efforts remain underway to locate the second.
CNN reported that the U.S. losses span several incidents since the start of the war.
On March 2, three F-15 fighter jets were downed in a “friendly fire” incident over Kuwait, with all crew members ejecting safely.
On March 12, six U.S. personnel were killed when a KC-135 refueling aircraft crashed in Iraq during an operational incident involving another aircraft.
On March 27, an E-3 Sentry airborne warning and control aircraft was destroyed on the ground during an Iranian strike on Prince Sultan Air Base in Saudi Arabia, injuring at least 10 U.S. service members.
In a separate incident, a U.S. F-35 fighter jet was forced to make an emergency landing after being struck by what sources described to CNN as likely Iranian fire.
Iran has presented the developments as evidence of growing control over its airspace.
Tasnim News Agency reported that the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) said its air defense units had downed six U.S.-Israeli aerial assets in a single day, including one fighter jet and multiple drones and cruise missiles.
According to the IRGC, interceptions included two cruise missiles over Khomein and Zanjan, two MQ-9 drones over Isfahan, and a Hermes drone over Bushehr, in addition to a fighter jet downed over central Iran.
The IRGC declared the engagements a decisive blow against U.S. and Israeli air power, asserting that continued operations would make Iranian airspace increasingly hostile to foreign aircraft.
The CNN report marks one of the clearest acknowledgments from U.S. sources of the scale of aerial losses, aligning in part with earlier Iranian claims that multiple U.S. aircraft had been struck during the conflict.
Source: Palestine Chronicle
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