Mounting cost of war: US military losses in Iran conflict approach $5bn in first month
Aircraft, radar systems and critical infrastructure hit across the region as Operation Epic Fury exposes vulnerabilities in US military network
By Abdullahi Yusuf
The United States has suffered approximately $4.83 billion in military asset losses during the first month of Operation Epic Fury, according to data compiled by Anadolu, with destroyed aircraft, radar systems and critical infrastructure spread across multiple countries in the region.
The single most costly incident involved an E-3G Sentry AWACS aircraft valued at roughly $500 million, destroyed in an Iranian strike on Saudi Arabia’s Prince Sultan Air Base on March 27.
Three KC-135 Stratotanker refueling aircraft, each worth approximately $320 million at current replacement costs, were also destroyed in the same attack, while a fourth KC-135 crashed separately in western Iraq, killing all six crew members.
Fifteen MQ-9 Reaper drones were lost, with a combined value of around $450 million.
Other aircraft losses include three F-15E Strike Eagles destroyed in a friendly-fire incident involving Kuwaiti air defenses, an F-35 forced into an emergency landing and a UH-60M Black Hawk helicopter struck by drones at a former U.S. base in Iraq.
The most expensive losses involved radar infrastructure. Four AN/TPY-2 radars belonging to THAAD systems in the UAE, Jordan and Saudi Arabia were damaged at an estimated combined value of $2 billion.
An AN/FPS-132 early warning radar at Qatar’s Al-Udeid Air Base, worth approximately $1.1 billion, was struck by an Iranian missile on February 28.
Additional losses include an AN/MPQ-64 Sentinel radar in Iraq, two satellite communications terminals at the US Fifth Fleet headquarters in Bahrain, three destroyed radomes at Camp Arifjan in Kuwait and a radar system at the US Embassy compound in Baghdad.
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