The extent of US aircraft loses in the conflict with Iran is much larger that the Americans acknowledge, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi has said.
In a paper published on Tuesday the Congressional Research Service (CRS) said that at least 81 US warplanes, helicopters, and drones had been destroyed or damaged in the fighting with Tehran since late February.
Araghchi reacted to the report in a post on X on Thursday, insisting that the “real toll is far higher” than the one presented by the CRS.
“Proof? CENTCOM (US Central Command) won’t let a sitting Senator inspect bases it claims are fine,” the foreign minister wrote.
He was referring to a claim made by US Senator Chris Murphy earlier this week that he was denied access to the American Al Udeid Air Base in Qatar, which has been the target of Iranian strikes.
According to Murphy, the “unprecedented” rejection was “part of a coordinated, deliberate campaign by the Department of Defense to hide the consequences and the true costs of the Iran war.”
It is getting harder for the Pentagon to “fool all the people,” Aragchi said. He did not provide any alternative figures for US aircraft losses.
The CRS said in its paper that the cost of American planes, helicopters, and UAVs destroyed or damaged during the conflict could reach $3.3 billion. The figures provided in the document came from news reports and statements by CENTCOM and officials from the Department of Defense, the CRS said.
Congress has criticized the Pentagon for its reluctance to provide a complete list of aircraft losses in the conflict.
Some of the most advanced US warplanes have suffered hits, including one F-35A Lightning II stealth fighter, which was damaged by Iranian fire on March 19, and 12 F-15E Strike Eagle fighters, the report read.
Three F-15s were shot down by friendly fire in Kuwait’s airspace in early March and another was hit over Iran the next month. Eight more suffered minor damage during Tehran’s missile attack on an airbase in Jordan in September, but have since been fixed and returned to service, the CRS said.
Seven KC-135 Stratotanker aerial refueling aircraft were also destroyed or damaged, according to the paper. Two were involved in an incident on March 14, with one KC-135 crashing in Iraq, killing all six crew members, and another performing an emergency landing. Six more refueling planes were affected in an Iranian bombardment of a US base in Saudi Arabia a few days later.
Other notable aircraft losses included two A-10 Thunderbolt IIs, two MC-130J special operations aircraft and an E-3 Sentry airborne warning-and-control aircraft, the report added.
Among the helicopters reported destroyed, one AH-64 Apache was shot down over the Strait of Hormuz, four AH-6 Little Birds were lost during rescue operations and an MH-60 Sea Hawk crashed over the Arabian Sea in mid-September.
The heaviest attrition was felt by the US fleet of MQ-9 Reaper drones, with at least 45 lost during the conflict with Iran, the report read.
The CRS said that several issues could benefit from congressional oversight, including whether the Pentagon possesses the funding to replace damaged aircraft and whether the losses of aging platforms, which are in short supply, could create capability gaps for the US military.
Last month, the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) said that the conflict with Iran had cost the US approximately $38 billion in its first five months. The bill could increase by another $2 billion to $3 billion for every additional month of fighting, it cautioned.
Iran has increased its capacity to produce arms by 2.5 times compared to its pre-war level, the country’s Defense Ministry spokesman, Brigadier General Reza Talaei-Nik, said on Tuesday, warning that any further US aggression will be met with a decisive response by Tehran. The Islamic Republic currently manufactures more than 1,000 types of weapons systems and munitions, many of which have undergone technological upgrades during the conflict, he stressed.