At Least 81 US Aircraft Lost or Damaged in Military Campaign Against Iran

At least 81 US military aircraft, including fighter jets and drones, have been lost or damaged in Operation Epic Fury — the codename for the military campaign Washington launched against Iran earlier this year. The figure appears in a report released Monday by the US Congressional Budget Office (CBO), the nonpartisan budget research agency that provides information to lawmakers.

According to CBO estimates, as of August 1, the cost of US aircraft damage in the war waged by the United States and Israel against Iran ranged from $1.9 billion to $3.3 billion. This week's report highlights the mounting expense of the war, which began on February 28, as a lasting ceasefire remains out of reach and the conflict enters its eighth month.

"The asymmetry in warfare shows that even small countries with small militaries can inflict damage on the most powerful military forces in the world," said Harlan Ullman, a former naval officer and chairman of the government consultancy Killowen Group. He told Al Jazeera that Iran has achieved a certain degree of success in damaging US equipment and military bases in the Middle East.

"Iran has plenty of US targets to aim at, and you can imagine what a small drone can do to a large piece of military equipment. We have seen such examples in the Gulf countries in this conflict," Ullman explained.

Monday's report listed 12 F-15E Strike Eagle fighters, one F-35A Lightning II fighter and seven KC-135 Stratotanker aerial refueling aircraft among the affected equipment. Of the 81 aircraft identified in the report, 45 were MQ-9 Reaper drones.

The changing nature of war

Experts such as Ullman argue that part of America's vulnerability stems from the shift in modern warfare, which increasingly relies on cheap, widely available drones. Many have pointed to Russia's war in Ukraine as an example of how a smaller military like Kyiv's can hold off a larger adversary through drone warfare.

Rumors of a possible drone attack on Britain's RAF Fairford — which had hosted US equipment in the war with Iran — also led dozens of US aircraft to depart unexpectedly on Sunday. Ullman cited these cases as examples of how the drone threat has been effective in pushing larger militaries onto the defensive.

"We have seen the US have to move B-1 bombers out of Britain over concerns about Iranian attacks, and we have also seen Ukraine's Operation Spiderweb, when small drones launched from inside Russia targeted and destroyed Russian military equipment," Ullman said.

The cost of war

The rising costs associated with the war against Iran are also putting political pressure on the administration of US President Donald Trump. Earlier this year, his administration requested a record $1.5 trillion in defense spending for fiscal year 2027, citing the demands of the war. But the surging price tag has fueled skepticism in Congress, particularly among Democrats.

Last month, 45 Democratic senators and one independent sent an open letter to Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth demanding transparency in the war's cost accounting. They argued that a "detailed breakdown" of costs is needed before Congress considers further supplemental funding.

"American taxpayers have already had to spend an extra $100 billion just because of higher gasoline and diesel prices, plus at least another $60 billion in added costs such as food, mortgages and airline tickets due to the war," the senators wrote. "Now you are asking them to pay once again to fund a war of choice that Congress never authorized and the President launched without a strategic plan."

In a separate report released in September, the CBO estimated the war with Iran had cost about $38 billion as of August 1. That figure reflects the cost of replacing munitions used and equipment lost in combat, along with higher fuel costs and other operations. "Another month of conflict will cost $2 billion," the agency said, though it added that "if the intensity of the conflict rises to a level equivalent to July, the monthly cost will rise to $3 billion."

The Pentagon said it had "nothing further to provide" when asked by Al Jazeera whether the damage reported this week was expected and how it would affect the department's budget.

Polls show the war is unpopular with American voters, and analysts have speculated whether reports of rising costs could influence the US midterm elections, the vote that will determine whether Trump's Republican Party retains control of Congress. Ullman, however, was skeptical that a report like Monday's would be decisive in the outcome.

"I don't think that report will affect the course of the upcoming midterm elections, because many Americans, including those who oppose the war, will see it as damage anticipated in a military campaign," Ullman said.