A new congressional report tallies 42 American aircraft destroyed or damaged during Operation Epic Fury — including irreplaceable drones, tankers and a key radar plane — as the Pentagon prepares a massive $29 billion emergency funding request.
The U.S. military lost or suffered significant damage to 42 aircraft during six weeks of combat against Iran, a new congressional report has found, revealing a scale of aviation losses not seen in decades and setting the stage for a $29 billion supplemental budget request.
The unclassified report from the Congressional Research Service, released May 13, provides the first comprehensive government accounting of aircraft attrition during Operation Epic Fury — the aerial bombing campaign against Iran that began in late February and is currently operating under a tenuous ceasefire.
“The number of aircraft damaged or destroyed may remain subject to revision due to multiple factors, which may include classification, ongoing combat activity and attribution,” the CRS report notes.
The losses span nine platform types and include drones, aerial refueling tankers, a specialized airborne command-and-control aircraft, fighters, special operations transports, and a combat rescue helicopter. Several of the destroyed aircraft are out of production and cannot be directly replaced.
Acting Pentagon Comptroller Jules W. Hurst puts the total cost of Operation Epic Fury at $29 billion, with the bulk of that figure attributed to the replacement of precision munitions and lost equipment.
The Full Tally
The heaviest single loss was the General Atomics MQ-9A Reaper. Twenty-four of the unmanned aerial vehicles were shot down throughout the campaign, accounting for more than half of all U.S. aircraft destroyed or damaged.
Though the absence of a pilot makes the Reaper well-suited for high-risk intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance missions in defended airspace, the drone is far from what the Pentagon considers expendable. Each aircraft costs more than $56 million in 2021 dollar values — roughly comparable to a new-build Boeing F/A-18E/F Super Hornet or a Lockheed Martin F-16 Block 70/72 fighter, according to U.S. Naval Air Systems Command.
Seven Boeing KC-135 Stratotanker aerial refueling jets were also lost. One was lost and a second was significantly damaged in a mid-air collision over western Iraq while supporting the bombing campaign, killing the six-member crew of the aircraft that went down. The remaining five were obliterated on the ground during a coordinated Iranian strike on Prince Sultan Air Base in Saudi Arabia.
Four Boeing F-15E Strike Eagles were shot down — three by Kuwaiti ground-based air defenses in a friendly fire incident early in the war, and a fourth inside Iranian airspace, triggering a multi-day combat search and rescue operation that generated additional losses of its own.
Two Lockheed Martin MC-130J Commando II special operations transports were intentionally destroyed on the ground inside Iran after U.S. commandos abandoned them during the rescue mission. Officials say the aircraft were obliterated to prevent their classified systems from falling into Iranian hands. Iranian media subsequently released images of the wreckage.
The same coordinated Iranian ground strike that destroyed five KC-135s also took out a Boeing E-3 Sentry airborne warning and control system aircraft parked on the tarmac. One Lockheed Martin F-35A Lightning II sustained combat damage from a guided munition and landed safely in friendly territory. An A-10C Thunderbolt II was catastrophically damaged over Iran during the rescue operation and the pilot ejected over friendly airspace. A Sikorsky HH-60W Jolly Green II combat rescue helicopter was damaged but not destroyed. The U.S. Navy also lost one Northrop Grumman MQ-4C Triton maritime patrol drone in what the CRS describes as an operational mishap rather than enemy action.
No Replacements on the Shelf
The MQ-9A losses present a near-term readiness problem with no straightforward fix. General Atomics shuttered the Reaper production line in 2025 after the Air Force declined to order additional aircraft.
“Right now, there are parts for about five brand new Reapers in the warehouse,” said C. Mark Brinkley, senior director of strategic communications and marketing for General Atomics Aeronautical Systems. “We also have some number of company-owned Reapers that we’ve offered to give up, so that’s less than 10 total.”
The decision to close the production line, Brinkley said, “was not a General Atomics decision.”
“We argued against that and lost,” he added.
Air Force Deputy Chief of Staff for Plans and Programs Lt. Gen. David Tabor testified that the total operational MQ-9 fleet has dropped to approximately 135 aircraft following the Iran losses, though the service is still maintaining its required 56 combat lines worldwide. Air Force Futures Military Deputy Maj. Gen. Christopher Niemi said the service has approved a new requirements document for an MQ-9 successor — one that must be producible at scale and at a significantly lower unit cost.
The loss of the E-3 AWACS opens a separate, longer-term gap. The CRS flagged the aircraft as a numerically limited asset that could “create capability gaps or increase risk in other theaters.” The Pentagon says it will pursue Boeing’s E-7A Wedgetail as a successor, covering two prototypes and five operational jets, but those aircraft are years from delivery.
Boneyard Reactivation
The depth of the tanker shortage is already forcing emergency measures. In the first week of April, the Air Force ferried a retired KC-135 — tail number 58-0011 — from the Davis-Monthan Air Force Base boneyard in Arizona to the Oklahoma City Air Logistics Complex at Tinker Air Force Base, where it will be cannibalized for parts to support the repair of battle-damaged active-duty Stratotankers. Aviation photographers documented active-duty Stratotankers displaying extensive battle damage repair patches arriving at the same Oklahoma depot in the weeks following the losses.
Friendly Fire and a Costly Rescue
The March 1 fratricide incident unfolded at 11:03 p.m. Eastern time as the three Strike Eagles were conducting operations over Kuwait. Kuwaiti ground-based air defenses engaged the aircraft while they were simultaneously targeting Iranian aircraft, inbound ballistic missiles, and swarming drones — a battlespace dense enough to degrade standard identification friend or foe protocols. All six crew members ejected safely and were recovered. The Kuwaiti government formally acknowledged responsibility.
The fourth F-15E, assigned to the 494th Fighter Squadron of the 48th Fighter Wing at Royal Air Force Lakenheath in the United Kingdom, was shot down inside Iranian airspace on April 3. The pilot was recovered within hours. The weapon systems officer, however, remained stranded in southern Isfahan province.
A major extraction mission launched on April 5 dispatched MC-130J transports deep into Iran carrying M/AH-6 Little Bird helicopters to support the rescue. The Commando IIs landed at a remote desert site but became mired in soft sand, forcing ground commanders to order their destruction before Iranian forces arrived. The CRS report made no mention of the Little Bird helicopters, though Iranian media images showed at least one of the small rotorcraft among the wreckage.
An A-10C Thunderbolt II providing overhead cover during the recovery was catastrophically damaged and the pilot ejected over friendly airspace. Iranian ground forces directed small arms fire at the departing HH-60W helicopters, wounding multiple crew members and damaging one aircraft, though both returned to friendly territory. The weapon systems officer was ultimately recovered.
A Stealth Fighter Takes a Hit
The Pentagon says Operation Epic Fury marks the first documented instance of a U.S. fifth-generation stealth fighter sustaining direct combat damage. The F-35A was struck by a guided munition that some unverified reports described as a loitering anti-aircraft munition with thermal infrared tracking — a system that could target the aircraft’s heat signature rather than its radar cross-section, potentially circumventing stealth shaping designed to defeat radar-guided threats.
The pilot maintained control and executed a successful emergency landing at a coalition airbase in friendly territory.
The Oversight Gap
The CRS report does not limit itself to inventory — it raises a pointed institutional question about accountability.
“It is unclear whether DoD has provided Congress an accounting of the aircraft lost in [Operation Epic Fury],” the report states.
In assessing the losses, the legislative research service identifies both near-term constraints and potential strategic lessons. The attrition of out-of-production platforms like the MQ-9A and E-3 will create short-term inventory pressure, the CRS notes, while also generating data on how U.S. systems perform against a sophisticated air defense network.
“Reported losses may provide insights into the survivability of US aircraft in contested environments,” the report states. “Congress may assess whether reported losses reflect changes in the threat environment or in adversary capabilities.”
Munitions and the Pacific
The $29 billion supplemental request is driven heavily by munition consumption. The campaign rapidly burned through Standard Missile 6, Standard Missile 3 Block IB, Joint Air-to-Surface Standoff Missiles, and Tomahawk land-attack cruise missiles. Production timelines for critical munitions like the SM-6 and Tomahawk average three to four years, and analysts have warned that the depletion of Middle East stockpiles has degraded U.S. readiness in the Indo-Pacific and undermined Taiwan defense contingency planning.
Human Cost
Thirteen American service members were killed in action during Operation Epic Fury, with more than 380 wounded.
Six Army reservists — Sgt. Declan Coady, Sgt. 1st Class Nicole Amor, Capt. Cody Khork, Sgt. 1st Class Noah Tietjens, Chief Warrant Officer 3 Robert Marzan, and Maj. Jeffrey O’Brien — were killed when an Iranian drone struck an operations center at a civilian port in Kuwait. Army Sgt. Benjamin N. Pennington died from wounds sustained in a separate Iranian attack on Prince Sultan Air Base in Saudi Arabia.
Key Takeaways
- A May 13 CRS report is the first government document to tally all 42 U.S. aircraft destroyed or significantly damaged in Operation Epic Fury.
- Twenty-four MQ-9A Reapers were destroyed; General Atomics has fewer than 10 replacements available after closing the production line in 2025.
- Six KC-135 Stratotankers were destroyed and a seventh significantly damaged; the downed E-3 AWACS has no immediate replacement. The Air Force has begun restoring boneyard aircraft.
- The Pentagon is drafting a $29 billion supplemental request; munition depletion has degraded Indo-Pacific readiness.
- The CRS notes it is unclear whether DoD has given Congress a full accounting of aircraft lost in the Iran air campaign.