Congressional Report Tallies 42 US Aircraft Lost or Damaged in Iran War

At least 42 United States military aircraft were lost or damaged during Operation Epic Fury, the roughly 40-day American and Israeli air campaign against Iran, according to a Congressional Research Service report published in May. Independent open-source trackers now put the confirmed toll considerably higher, though the Pentagon has not issued its own public accounting.

The May 13 report, titled “U.S. Aircraft Combat Losses in Operation Epic Fury: Considerations for Congress,” was compiled by the nonpartisan research arm of the Library of Congress using Defense Department statements, U.S. Central Command briefings and news accounts. The CRS said its own count “may remain subject to revision due to multiple factors, which may include classification, ongoing combat activity, and attribution.”

The United States and Israel launched coordinated strikes on Iran on Feb. 28, targeting military infrastructure, missile facilities and senior leadership figures, including Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, who was killed in the campaign’s opening phase. Combat activity slowed under a ceasefire in April before some strikes resumed, and the conflict remains unresolved.

What the report found

The CRS list includes four F-15E Strike Eagle fighters, one F-35A Lightning II, one A-10 Thunderbolt II attack aircraft, seven KC-135 Stratotanker refueling planes, one E-3 Sentry airborne early-warning aircraft, two MC-130J Commando II special operations transports, one HH-60W Jolly Green II rescue helicopter, 24 MQ-9 Reaper drones and one MQ-4C Triton surveillance drone. Uncrewed aircraft accounted for the majority of the total, with drone losses making up about 60 percent of combat attrition, according to a tally by the outlet The War Zone.

Three of the F-15Es were destroyed in the war’s opening days, on March 1-2, when a Kuwaiti Air Force jet mistakenly shot them down over Kuwait. Five KC-135 tankers were damaged on the ground two days later in an Iranian missile and drone strike on Prince Sultan Air Base in Saudi Arabia, and an E-3 Sentry was hit in a second Iranian strike on the same base on March 27; a Washington Post report cited by the CRS said the aircraft had been parked on an unprotected taxiway.

A fourth F-15E was shot down over Iran on April 5, in the only case the Pentagon has attributed directly to Iranian air defenses; both crew members were recovered in a search-and-rescue operation that also cost the U.S. an A-10 and two MC-130Js, which American forces destroyed on the ground in Iran after the transports could not take off from a forward airstrip. All personnel involved were evacuated safely. A rescue helicopter took small-arms fire during the same mission. Separately, a KC-135 crashed in friendly airspace in Iraq early in the war, killing all six crew members; U.S. Central Command has disputed initial reporting that the crew may have been evading militia fire, and an Air Force-led investigation is expected to attribute the crash to an “avoidable mishap,” according to The Atlantic.

Disputed toll, rising cost

Iranian officials have used the loss figures to argue Tehran blunted American air superiority. Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi posted the CRS report on social media, saying it showed Congress had “acknowledged loss of dozens of aircraft worth billions” months into the war. CENTCOM has repeatedly disputed Iranian claims of additional shootdowns, saying in one case that Iran’s Revolutionary Guard “made the same false claim at least half a dozen times” about aircraft it said were downed.

The Pentagon has not published its own comprehensive loss assessment. Acting Pentagon Comptroller Jules W. Hurst III told Congress on May 12 that the estimated cost of the campaign had reached roughly $29 billion, adding that the figure did not include damage to U.S. bases hit in Iranian retaliatory strikes. Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. Kenneth Wilsbach told the House Armed Services Committee on May 20 that the MQ-9 Reaper had proven the campaign’s most valuable platform despite its losses.

Open-source tracking has continued since the CRS report’s publication. A military-losses tracker that logs Operation Epic Fury attrition put confirmed U.S. aircraft losses at 68 as of Sept. 1, alongside 81 Iranian and 21 Israeli losses, as part of a broader count of more than 170 military assets lost by all sides since the war began. That figure comes from open-source compilation rather than an official government count and has not been independently verified against classified damage assessments.

What follows

The Defense Department has not said whether or when it will release its own accounting of aircraft losses to Congress. The CRS report noted it remains unclear whether the department has provided lawmakers a full internal tally, and said Congress may need to assess whether it has sufficient information to evaluate the budgetary effects of continued losses, including unplanned replacement and repair costs. The full extent of losses to classified aircraft and platforms operating in the campaign, including at least one reconnaissance drone whose exact role has not been disclosed, may not be publicly known even after the war ends.

Sources

Casualty and loss figures are attributed to the Congressional Research Service report and corroborated by multiple wire and trade outlets citing the same document; the September tally is a separate open-source count, not an official U.S. figure, and is identified as such above.

Wire services and international press

• The Associated Press via PBS News, “AP report: U.S. launches rescue operation after Iranian state TV claims fighter jet went down.” https://www.pbs.org/newshour/world/ap-report-u-s-launches-rescue-operation-after-iranian-state-tv-claims-fighter-jet-went-down
• Gulf News, “US Lost 42 Aircraft in Iran War: Operation Epic Fury Costs, F-35 Loss and $29 Billion Price Tag Explained.” https://gulfnews.com/world/mena/us-lost-42-aircraft-in-iran-war-as-operation-epic-fury-congressional-report-says-1.500547416

Defense and specialist trade press

• Military Times, “Congressional report tallies 42 US aircraft lost or damaged in Operation Epic Fury.” https://www.militarytimes.com/news/pentagon-congress/2026/05/22/congressional-report-tallies-42-us-aircraft-lost-or-damaged-in-operation-epic-fury/
• Stars and Stripes, “42 aircraft lost or damaged in Operation Epic Fury, congressional report says.” https://www.stripes.com/branches/air_force/2026-05-20/iran-jets-downed-war-fury-21727588.html
• USNI News, republished text of the CRS report. https://news.usni.org/2026/05/20/report-to-congress-on-u-s-aircraft-combat-losses-in-operation-epic-fury
• The War Zone (TWZ), “Operation Epic Fury U.S. Aircraft Losses Visualized.” https://www.twz.com/air/operation-epic-fury-u-s-aircraft-losses-visualized
• The Aviationist, “Congressional Report on Operation Epic Fury Lists 42 U.S. Aircraft Damaged or Destroyed.” https://theaviationist.com/2026/05/20/crs-report-epic-fury-aircraft-losses/

Primary document

• Congressional Research Service, “U.S. Aircraft Combat Losses in Operation Epic Fury: Considerations for Congress,” IN12692, May 13, 2026, via Congress.gov. https://www.congress.gov/crs-product/IN12692

Background and open-source tracking

• Global Military tracker, “2026 Iran Conflict — Military Losses Tracker,” accessed Sept. 10, 2026. https://www.globalmilitary.net/conflicts/iran-2026/
• Time, “U.S. Fighter Jet Crashes in Iran, Triggering Search for Crew,” April 3, 2026. https://time.com/article/2026/04/03/rescuers-search-for-crew-of-u-s-fighter-jet-downed-inside-iran/

Editor’s note on sourcing Iranian state and semi-official outlets (Tasnim) have repeatedly claimed additional U.S. aircraft shootdowns beyond those in the CRS list; CENTCOM has denied most of these and the CRS report does not include them, so they are omitted here except where noted as disputed. The September open-source tally of 68 U.S. losses is not government-verified and is presented only as an indication that the toll has been reported as rising since May; it is not treated as a confirmed figure equivalent to the CRS count. The identity and operational role of at least one reportedly deployed reconnaissance drone platform remain unconfirmed and are not detailed here.