Editor’s Note: This story was updated April 5 after the rescues of both F-15E crew members.
A U.S. Air Force F-15E Strike Eagle was shot down over Iran, sparking a massive combat search and rescue effort April 3, people familiar with the matter told Air & Space Forces Magazine.
Both crew members ejected from the aircraft. One crew member was rescued April 3 and is alive, U.S. officials said. The second crew member was recovered alive April 5 in a a dramatic nighttime rescue mission by American forces that involved dozens of aircraft. The F-15E, which is a multirole fighter, has a pilot and a weapons systems officer.
Meanwhile, a U.S. Air Force A-10 Thunderbolt II attack aircraft was also lost in the Persian Gulf region April 3, and its pilot was rescued and is alive, according to people familiar with the matter.
Initial U.S. indications suggest the F-15E and A-10 were both hit by Iran.
Iran claimed to have downed a U.S. fighter overnight and posted photos purportedly showing the jet’s wreckage. Those photos, circulated by Iranian media, appear to show wreckage from an F-15E, but they could not be immediately authenticated.
U.S. Central Command and the Pentagon did not respond to requests for comment.
Videos on social media, purportedly taken in southwestern and central Iran, show U.S. aircraft flying low to conduct combat search-and-rescue (CSAR) operations.
The U.S. Air Force has CSAR teams deployed to the Middle East equipped with HC-130J Combat King II planes and HH-60 helicopters.
At least one rescue helicopter involved in the operation was hit with Iranian fire, but managed to land, people familiar with the matter said.
This is the first known combat loss of U.S. crewed aircraft during the conflict. A U.S. Air Force F-35 pilot suffered shrapnel wounds after their aircraft was damaged by hostile fire during a combat mission over Iran on March 19, but the plane was able to make an emergency landing at a U.S. air base. Three USAF F-15Es were shot down in a friendly fire incident by Kuwaiti F/A-18 aircraft on March 2, with all six crew members ejecting safely. And a KC-135 tanker crashed in western Iraq after a midair collision with another KC-135, resulting in the deaths of six Airmen.
“High-end combat against a capable, integrated air defense system is never risk-free,” said retired Lt. Gen. David A. Deptula, dean of AFA’s Mitchell Institute for Aerospace Studies. “What distinguishes modern Western airpower is not invulnerability, but the ability to survive, penetrate, and sustain operations while keeping losses exceptionally low.”
U.S. military officials have said it is operating with air superiority over large parts of Iran and that the U.S. military has hit over 12,300 targets.
The aircraft losses do “not invalidate the larger reality that U.S. and allied forces have achieved a very high degree of air superiority over Iran,” Deptula said. “Air superiority does not mean zero risk.”