Iran Shoots Down F-15E, First U.S. Warplane Lost in War

The United States confirmed what five weeks of official assurances had insisted was impossible: Iran shot down an American combat jet. An F-15E Strike Eagle from the 494th Expeditionary Fighter Squadron went down over Iran on Friday, becoming the first U.S. warplane destroyed by Iranian fire since Operation Epic Fury began on February 28. One of the two crew members was rescued by U.S. forces. The second remains missing.

The F-15E is a two-seat, Boeing-built aircraft that flies with a pilot and a weapons-systems officer. Iranian state media released images it claimed showed a tail fin and wreckage from the jet, and authorities announced a bounty of 10 billion tomans, roughly $60,000, for anyone who captured or killed the surviving crew member. The House Armed Services Committee was notified by the Pentagon that the status of the second service member remains unknown.

The loss came as a direct rebuke to weeks of declarations from the administration. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and other senior officials had repeatedly asserted U.S. dominance of Iranian airspace. In a prime-time address Wednesday, President Trump said Iran had "no anti-aircraft equipment," that its radar was "100% annihilated," and that the U.S. was "unstoppable as a military force." The F-15E wreckage rendered those claims inoperative within 48 hours.

Friday's events extended beyond a single aircraft. During the search-and-rescue operation launched after the F-15E went down, an A-10 Warthog also came under Iranian fire near the Strait of Hormuz. Its pilot ejected and was rescued safely. That made two U.S. military aircraft lost in a single day, though the Pentagon did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Iran has made at least six prior false claims of shooting down U.S. aircraft during the conflict, each denied by American officials, but Friday's losses were confirmed by U.S. sources.

The escalation did not stop there. A projectile struck the perimeter of the Bushehr nuclear power plant in southwest Iran, killing one member of the site's physical protection staff, according to Iran's IRNA news agency. The International Atomic Energy Agency confirmed it had been informed of the incident, identifying it as the fourth such strike near the facility in recent weeks. IAEA Director General Rafael Grossi expressed "deep concern" and stated that nuclear plants and their surrounding areas "must never be attacked." No elevated radiation levels were detected at the site.

Bushehr, Iran's only commercial nuclear power station, sits on the Persian Gulf and was built with Russian assistance, connected to the national grid in 2011. Russia's state nuclear corporation Rosatom previously stationed more than 200 specialists at the plant, and Russian President Vladimir Putin engaged directly with Israeli leadership during the 2025 Twelve-Day War to secure their safety. Who fired the projectile that killed the security staffer Saturday was not independently confirmed; Iranian media attributed it to U.S. and Israeli forces, but neither Washington nor Tel Aviv claimed the strike.

The gap between what governments assert and what is actually known defines the moment. With one American service member unaccounted for, Iran offering a cash reward for his capture, a rescue operation drawing additional aircraft into hostile airspace, and munitions landing within 350 meters of an operating nuclear reactor, the margin for miscalculation has narrowed sharply. Prior to Friday, 13 Americans had been killed since the war began. The number of close calls, on the ground and in the air, is climbing faster than the official count reflects.