The ongoing US air war over Iran has been far more dangerous for US pilots than the bombing campaign against Saddam Hussein’s Iraq in 2003, or Afghanistan in 2001.

Until the start of Operation Epic Fury just six weeks ago, the last time that a United States Air Force fighter jet was shot down in combat came during the 2003 US-led invasion of Iraq. An A-10 Thunderbolt II, piloted by Major Jim Ewald, was completing its close-air support (CAS) mission over Baghdad when it was struck by an Iraqi surface-to-air missile (SAM) on April 8, 2003.

“I could see a reddish glow on my cockpit instruments from the fire behind me,” Ewald, then serving in the 110th Fighter Wing from Battle Creek, Michigan, said during an American Forces Press Service briefing in July 2003. He noted the damage the aircraft took, adding, “That’s just the way we say, ‘I was trying to fly the airplane one way, but the airplane was off doing its own thing.’”

Ewald credited his survival to the ruggedness of the A-10, which has been described by many as akin to a flying tank.

“I was very fortunate to be flying this mission in an A-10, because had I not, I would have bailed out right there,” Ewald explained. “My next thought was ‘I don’t want to bail out right over Baghdad, or I’m going to be in it deep.’”

America Is Losing More and More Aircraft in the Iran War

Ewald’s experience was likely not that dissimilar to the three US Air Force aviators who were shot down in Operation Epic Fury last week.

The US Air Force saw the Iranian military shoot down an F-15E Strike Eagle with a shoulder-fired missile, while another A-10 Thunderbolt II was lost in the subsequent rescue mission.

These were not the first aircraft losses to date. More than a dozen fixed-wing aircraft have now been lost or damaged in the air campaign over Iran, in addition to roughly the same number of helicopters and drones.

As previously reported, the first aircraft nominally “shot down” over Iran was an F-35A Lightning II, which was forced to make an emergency landing after being hit by ground fire. That incident came just days after a US Air Force KC-135 refueler crashed in western Iraq, killing six airmen. Another KC-135 was confirmed to have been damaged on the ground in Saudi Arabia during an Iranian missile strike.

In addition, an E-3 Sentry, one of just 16 in service, was also destroyed on the ground. The Sentry has been vital for tracking airborne threats, including missiles, and for surveilling and monitoring the region’s battlespace.

In the open days of the fighting, three F-15E Strike Eagles were mistakenly shot down by Kuwaiti air defenses. That could have been a case of war nerves, but these losses are hardly insignificant.

The damage to the F-35 and the loss of the F-15E Strike Eagle to an Iranian MANPADS launcher is a reminder of the dangers—even as Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth has suggested Iran’s air defense capabilities have been destroyed, and President Donald Trump has said Iran is unable to carry on the fight. Iran evidently feels otherwise.

America’s Aerial Losses Are Far Heavier in Iran than Iraq

Between the 2003 invasion of Iraq and February 2009, a total of 129 helicopters and 24 fixed-wing aircraft were lost in the conflict in the Middle East. Of these, only around one-third were attributed to hostile fire, including enemy anti-aircraft artillery and surface-to-air missiles; two-thirds came from friendly fire or crashes. In the 20-year-long conflict in Afghanistan, no US fixed-wing fighters were shot down by enemy fire, though at least 70 helicopters were lost to enemy action.

In other words, Iran has already destroyed or damaged more US aircraft in the span of a month than Saddam Hussein’s forces could in all of 2003, or the insurgent groups in the decades that followed. Operation Epic Fury might seem to be taking place in similar territory, but the capabilities of Iran are significantly greater than those of Iraq and Afghanistan a quarter of a century ago.

“This is not the same war as we’ve fought for the last 25 years over Iraq and Afghanistan,” explained John “JV” Venable, senior resident fellow at the Mitchell Institute for Aerospace Studies.

“There are infrared missile threats all over Iran that are mobile and really hard to detect—that can reach up to about 20,000 feet,” Veneable, a 25-year career Air Force veteran who accumulated more than 4,500 hours in the F-16 and OV-10 aircraft, told The National Interest. “Our operations are to seek out and destroy ballistic missiles and drone launch attempts, which means we’ll be roving everywhere. We’re going to take losses through that effort; there’s no question about that. The idea is to overwhelm them—to take out as many of Iran’s assets that can be used to threaten our forces and regional partners—and that involves risk.”

About the Author: Peter Suciu

Peter Suciu has contributed to dozens of newspapers, magazines and websites over a 30-year career in journalism. He regularly writes about military hardware, firearms history, cybersecurity, politics, and international affairs. Peter is also a contributing writer for Forbes and Clearance Jobs. He is based in Michigan. You can follow him on Twitter: @PeterSuciu. You can email the author: Editor@nationalinterest.org.

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