Middle East Defence & Security

[MARKMILES77]

Congressional Research Services best estimate of US Aircraft losses in Operation Epic Fury.
Clearly an underestimation as
1: They have not included many known losses such as 4 Little Birds in Iran and a Blackhawk in Iraq.
2: Did not get formal figures from the US Department of War of all losses and
depended upon public sources for much of the information.

https://www.congress.gov/crs-product/IN12692

 

[John Fedup]

Congressional Research Services best estimate of US Aircraft losses in Operation Epic Fury.
Clearly an underestimation as
1: They have not included many known losses such as 4 Little Birds in Iran and a Blackhawk in Iraq.
2: Did not get formal figures from the US Department of War of all losses and
depended upon public sources for much of the information.

https://www.congress.gov/crs-product/IN12692

View attachment 54860

The two significant loses are the F-15s and tankers, especially the latter as the former were friendly fire incidents (would love to see the classified info on this). IIRC tankers some were lost on the ground which mirrors the Russian losses on parked jets at airfields in the missile/drone age..

 

[Feanor]

The two significant loses are the F-15s and tankers, especially the latter as the former were friendly fire incidents (would love to see the classified info on this). IIRC tankers some were lost on the ground which mirrors the Russian losses on parked jets at airfields in the missile/drone age..

I think the AEW loss is probably significant too, and didn't a substantial portion of the Reaper fleet go down as well?

 

[John Fedup]

I think the AEW loss is probably significant too, and didn't a substantial portion of the Reaper fleet go down as well?

Correct,, I forgot about the AEW. As for the Reapers, quite a few were lost but they are semi-disposable (sort of) and can be replaced faster unlike KC-135s which can only be replaced by expensive semi-functional KC-46s.

 

[Feanor]

Correct,, I forgot about the AEW. As for the Reapers, quite a few were lost but they are semi-disposable (sort of) and can be replaced faster unlike KC-135s which can only be replaced by expensive semi-functional KC-46s.

Faster sure, but how quickly? They're UAVs but not the cheap ones. They're big and expensive, with iirc an 8-figure price tag.

 

[John Fedup]

Faster sure, but how quickly? They're UAVs but not the cheap ones. They're big and expensive, with iirc an 8-figure price tag.

For the drone only, the cost is $16 million, a significant amount times 24 but a a small number compared the overall cost of this Trump C-F.

 

[Hoover]

For the drone only, the cost is $16 million, a significant amount times 24 but a a small number compared the overall cost of this Trump C-F.

A fully equipped MQ-9 costs 20 Million $ a piece (some sources say up to 50 Mio $) in the latest version. And the US Army had 160 MQ-9 in service (in all versions).
So 24 MQ-9 are a significant loss because the Reaper are distributed all over the world.

It is said the US lost 51 MQ-9 drones since 2024 in Yemen and Iran.

 

[John Fedup]

A fully equipped MQ-9 costs 20 Million $ a piece (some sources say up to 50 Mio $) in the latest version. And the US Army had 160 MQ-9 in service (in all versions).
So 24 MQ-9 are a significant loss because the Reaper are distributed all over the world.

It is said the US lost 51 MQ-9 drones since 2024 in Yemen and Iran.

The control station adds to the cost. Not sure how many Reapers are controlled by the control station. Three F-15EXs have roughly the price as 24 Reapers. That’s a 600 million dollar loss in total. The current defence budget is just over 1 trillion. Last week two Growlers were lost in a frigging air show for another $200 million. Replacement time may be a problem but apparently cost doesn’t seem to be.

 

[John Fedup]

Posted some information about the Reaper losses in the USAF thread.