The United States has lost or damaged at least 81 military aircraft and drones since the beginning of the war in Iran earlier this year, a loss totalling nearly $3.3 billion, according to a new Congressional Research Service report. The rare official account of the damages showed the losses include some of America’s most advanced warplanes, like the F-35A Lightning II stealth fighter, F-15 jets and MQ-9 Reaper drones.
E-3 Sentry surveillance plane– an ageing but essential platform that is based on the Boeing 707 airliner– costs $270 million each. The US had just 32 of them in operation as of 2015, according to the Air Force.
Per the report , titled “US Aircraft Combat Damage in Operation Epic Fury: Considerations for Congress”, the American forces lost 12 F-15E aircraft, one F-35A Lightning II fighter aircraft, two A-10 Thunderbolt II ground-attack aircraft, and seven KC-135 Stratotanker aerial refuelling aircraft.
