Congressional report details U.S. losses, rising costs in Operation Epic Fury

Congress is confronting a sharper picture of Operation Epic Fury than the Pentagon has publicly laid out: 42 fixed-wing or rotary-wing aircraft, including drones, were reportedly lost or damaged, and the war’s cost estimate climbed to $29 billion as repair and replacement bills piled up. The numbers raise a central accountability question for lawmakers and the public alike: whether the administration disclosed the true scale of risk before the United States joined Israel in striking Iran.

The latest congressional material shows the campaign exacted a toll across air, ground and missile defense operations. Three F-15Es were shot down by friendly fire over Kuwait on March 2, another F-15E was shot down over Iran on April 5, one A-10 Thunderbolt II was struck by enemy fire and later crashed during search-and-rescue operations, and five KC-135 tankers were damaged on the ground at Prince Sultan Air Base in Saudi Arabia during an Iranian missile and drone attack. The Defense Department has not published a comprehensive assessment of those losses.

The human cost was severe as well. Six American service members were killed and four others seriously wounded when an incoming munition hit a tactical operations center in Kuwait, and the remains of two previously unaccounted for service members were later recovered from the struck facility. CBS News also reported that 18 U.S. service members were seriously wounded as of March 2, underscoring that the campaign’s impact extended well beyond aircraft and munitions.

Cost estimates have moved just as quickly. Acting Pentagon Comptroller Jules W. Hurst III testified on May 12 that the department’s estimate had risen to $29 billion, with much of the increase tied to equipment repair and replacement. That was already above an earlier Pentagon figure of about $25 billion, but internal assessments described by U.S. officials familiar with the numbers put the true cost closer to $50 billion, reflecting replacement munitions, damaged or destroyed equipment and military installations. CBS News also reported the Pentagon had lost 24 MQ-9 Reaper drones, each worth roughly $30 million or more.

The accounting lands at a moment when Congress is pressing for more transparency on munitions inventories, missile defenses and the future U.S. posture in the region. On March 3, U.S. Central Command said, “We’ve already struck nearly 2,000 targets with more than 2,000 munitions.” By March 10, Defense Department officials said the military had hit more than 5,000 targets. Those figures, paired with the losses and rising costs, suggest Operation Epic Fury demanded a far heavier commitment than lawmakers or the public were initially shown, and that the final bill may still be climbing.