The United States military has had 81 aircraft destroyed or damaged in the war with Iran, a Congressional Research Service report released this week says.
The number includes both airplanes and helicopters as well as drones, with the MQ-9 Reaper drone – used for intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance, close air support and combat search and rescue – accounting for more than half of the losses.
But also on the list are some of the Pentagon’s most-prized assets, including an F-35A fighter jet and an E-3 Sentry, the four-engine jet with a large radar dome atop the fuselage used for target tracking and airspace management.
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The total cost of the aircraft lost is between $1.9 billion and $3.3 billion, depending on the Defense Department’s plans for replacements, the report said, citing figures from the Congressional Budget Office.
The total cost of the war is much higher – at least $45 billion, sources have told CNN. That figure doesn’t include damage to infrastructure at US bases in the region, including those where some of the aircraft losses happened.
Some of the aircraft included in the count may have been returned to service, including eight F-15 Strike Eagle fighter jets that sustained light damage in an Iranian strike on Muwaffaq Salti Air Base, Jordan, in September.
The report is based on numbers contained in statements from the Defense Department; its inspector general; US Central Command, which has been conducting the operations against Iran; and news reports reviewed by the CRS.
The report poses several questions for congressional consideration, including whether lawmakers are getting enough information from the Pentagon on the losses to determine effects and remedies.
Defense Department reporting on Iran war losses has, to date, been vague. Even the Pentagon inspector general’s report on the losses, released in September, and covering action from February 28 to June 30, cites previous CRS reports for some of its aircraft loss numbers.
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Other issues Congress needs to think about are whether to provide funding for repairs or replacements; whether there is enough industrial capacity to satisfy those requirements; and the effects on US military sales to foreign partners.
It also raises questions about how the Iran war has affected US posture outside the Middle East.
“Congress may assess whether losses in certain high-demand platforms that are aging and limited in number, such as the E-3 Sentry, create capability gaps or increase risk in other theaters,” the report says.
Analysts have said actions in the Middle East, including the Iran war and earlier confrontations with the Houthi rebels in Yemen, an Iranian proxy group, have taken an especially heavy toll on the MQ-9 drones, which Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. Kenneth Wilsbach told Congress earlier this year was the military’s “most valuable player” in the war with Iran.
Forty-five have been lost in the Middle East this year, “an alarming rate,” according to a September report from the Atlantic Council.
The Air Force has lost about 35% of its MQ-9s since 2004, it says.
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