“AMERICA HAS struck more than 11,000 targets in Iran since the start of its war, devastating military units, defence-industrial sites and nuclear facilities. But Iran has also exacted a real—and sometimes surprising—military cost.
Iran has hit American bases, aircraft and missile-warning radars, among other targets across the Middle East. Several American facilities in the Gulf are largely empty, with personnel operating from hotels and office buildings to avoid missiles and drones. Accidents have also claimed planes and lives. At least 13 American service people have died.
Affordable technology has given Iran some means to strike back in ways that were unthinkable during the years of America’s “war on terror”. The losses raise questions over whether America has been complacent about protecting facilities and valuable equipment, and whether Russia or China might be giving Iran targeting information.
Any tally of American losses will be incomplete. America does not generally confirm battle losses. Estimating the damage through open sources has become trickier after some providers of satellite images restricted services.
An E-3 AWACS, a flying radar, was destroyed on March 27th in Saudi Arabia. Open-source analysts say it was hit on a taxiway, suggesting Iran had accurate information about its location. It was one of perhaps 16 such aircraft in the US air force’s inventory.
Several kc-135 aerial-refuelling tankers appear to have been damaged in that attack. A mid-air accident damaged another tanker and caused a second to crash, killing six crew.
Another error led Kuwaiti forces to shoot down three American F-15 jets. Iran, meanwhile, claims to have damaged an F-35 stealth fighter that made an emergency landing in Jordan. It has shot down several MQ-9 Reaper drones.
A less visible but painful loss is the destruction or damaging of perhaps ten radars. One rare AN/TPY-2 radar, with a range of about 3,000km, has been destroyed in Jordan; reports suggest at least another may have been damaged. They are used by so-called THAAD ballistic-missile defences, of which the US had just eight such batteries. Also damaged is a more powerful AN/FPS-132 phased-array radar, with a range of 5,000km, bought by Qatar. America operates five of these around the world.
The lost equipment will take hundreds of millions, if not billions, of dollars and many years to replace. For Tim Walton of the Hudson Institute, a think-tank in Washington, American forces strengthen not only active defences but also passive ones, such as camouflage, decoys and hardened concrete shelters. “There is no sanctuary,” he warns. “Against an adversary like China, the losses could be much higher.”” [1]
1. Defending the base. The Economist; London Vol. 459, Iss. 9493, (Apr 4, 2026): 39.
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