“Iran downed two U.S. warplanes on Friday, the first time Tehran has brought down American jets during the war, setting off a search-and-rescue effort that left two service members safe and one still missing.
Iran's downing of the warplanes is the most striking evidence yet that, despite enormous military losses, Tehran can still significantly raise the cost of continuing the conflict for the U.S. and Israel.
The shootdowns were the most successful demonstration of Iran's military strategy to inflict tactical defeats on the U.S. and its allies in hopes not of winning militarily but of surviving and sapping their will to continue the fight.
An F-15E fighter and A-10 attack plane were the first U.S. or Israeli aircraft to be downed by Iran in thousands of sorties flown in Iranian airspace over the month-plus of the war. A massive search-and-rescue effort extricated one crew member of the F-15E, but at least one additional crew member was unaccounted for.
The A-10 wasn't brought down in Iranian territory, people familiar with the incident said. The pilot of the twin-engine, single-seat attack jet was able to fly out of Iranian territory before ejecting from the aircraft and being rescued, they said.
The question is how much such blows weaken President Trump's resolve to continue -- and even to expand -- the war at a time when he already appeared determined to bring it to a rapid close.
"It definitely shows that Iran can win without winning," said Alan Eyre, a former State Department Iran expert and fellow with the Middle East Institute. "The U.S. narrative is, 'We've got everything in the bag.' This punctures that narrative."
Instead of seeking to fight the U.S. and Israel toe-to-toe, Iran has adopted an asymmetric strategy, targeting Arab Gulf states, knocking out radars and other facilities critical to air defenses and shutting down most tanker traffic through the Strait of Hormuz. It is a tactic that the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, the powerful Iranian military organization running the war effort, used to kill thousands of U.S. troops in Iraq by arming proxy militias with improvised-explosive devices.
The air campaign has pounded Iranian missile bases and mobile launchers, but Tehran has been able to fire dozens of missiles and drones a day, prolonging the conflict, raising the economic costs on oil-exporting Gulf countries and in the U.S., and surviving to fight another day.
What it hadn't done until Friday was bring down any U.S. and Israeli warplanes over its territory. Iranian state television said Iranians would be rewarded for finding any U.S. crew members and turning them over alive.
Even with the U.S. rescue effort still under way and the fate of the U.S. crew member uncertain, Iran's parliamentary speaker, Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, posted a mocking statement on social media, suggesting U.S. war aims had suffered a major blow.
"This brilliant no-strategy war they started has now been downgraded from 'regime change' to 'Hey! Can anyone find our pilots?'" he wrote. "Wow. What incredible progress. Absolute geniuses."
The successful attacks came on the same day that Iranian officials told mediators it isn't willing to meet U.S. officials in Islamabad in the coming days and that the White House's far-reaching demands for ending the war are unacceptable.
William Wechsler, a former Defense Department official who heads Middle East programs at the Atlantic Council think tank, said the incidents showed that "while we have achieved air superiority, we have not achieved air supremacy."
"The IRGC is a professional military organization with a proven capacity to learn and adapt, and obviously retains capabilities that put our airmen and other military personnel at risk," Wechsler said.
The war could quickly spiral out of control, even with the vast superiority of the U.S. military, he said. "The war will go on for some time, and further escalations are increasingly likely, either intentional or accidental," he said. "And nobody should be confused -- there are lots of ways that this war could escalate further very quickly."
The loss of the warplanes comes after 13,000 combat flights and five weeks of airstrikes. Former Air Force officials said that such an incident hasn't happened until now underscored the successful U.S. efforts to suppress Iran's air defenses early in the war.
"What's amazing about this story is that it hasn't happened sooner," said retired Air Force Lt. Gen. Dave Deptula, who ran the air campaign for the 1990-91 Gulf War against Iraq. "There have been thousands of targets hit with thousands of sorties penetrating contested airspace. It's been an entire month and this is the first time we've had a combat loss? That's incredible."
Trump was briefed on the aircraft shootdowns, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said. He threatened in recent days to bombard Iran "back to the Stone Ages," and over the past 24 hours, the U.S. and Iran have been trading attacks on military and civilian infrastructure in the region.
Iran has scored other hits on the U.S., including a missile and drone attack last week on Prince Sultan Air Base in Saudi Arabia that heavily damaged or destroyed U.S. aircraft.” [1]
1. Iran Downs Two U.S. Warplanes, Triggering Frantic Rescue Mission. Cloud, David S; Holliday, Shelby. Wall Street Journal, Eastern edition; New York, N.Y.. 04 Apr 2026: A1.
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