Lee Tucker, USAF / Wikipedia
US Air Force F-15E Strike Eagle
US commandos traveled deep into Iranian territory to rescue the pilot of the F-15, who had been shot down two days earlier. For the Iranians, capturing the pilot would be a negotiating advantage. For the American military, finding him was a moral imperative.
The President of the USA, Donald Trumpconfirmed this Sunday that the US Armed Forces managed to rescue the officer of weapons systems from the F-15 fighter on Friday, which was missing in Iranian territory, after almost two days of intense searches for the soldier.
Hours after Trump’s announcement, US Central Command (CENTCOM) released the first official confirmation of the F-15 crash on April 2 “during a combat mission“, and the rescue of two crew members.
“On April 4, US forces successfully completed the rescue of US military personnel in Iran, after their F-15E fighter jet was shot down on April 2 during a combat mission,” CENTCOM explained in a statement.
“The soldiers were safely evacuated during separate operations search and rescue”, adds the note.
At about the same time as the F-15 was shot down, another U.S. fighter plane crashed in the Persian Gulf region., close to the Strait of Hormuz. The only pilot on board the aircraft, one, was rescued at the time. No details were provided about how and where it occurred.
On Friday, Tehran claimed to have shot down an F-15 fighterthe first American fighter plane to crash in Iranian territory since the start of the war. Washington then launched a search and rescue operation for the pilot, which will take place ejected from the aircraft and would be in an unknown location, in Iranian territory.
According to , although injured, the US soldier, a weapons systems officer, could walk, and escaped capture in the mountains for more than a day.
In his statement, Trump declared that the US Army had “carried out one of the most daring search and rescue operations of the history of the United States, to rescue one of our amazing crew officerswho is an extremely respected colonel — and about whom I am extremely pleased to report that Now you are SAFE and SAFE”.
In a later one, he described the rescue mission as “a incredible display of courage and talent by everyone!”
Risky operation
According to , the pilot’s rescue mission was conducted by Navy SEAL Team 6 controlsthe US Navy’s special operations force.
The pilot, whose identity was not revealed, was equipped with a pistola locator and a secure communications devicewith which he shared information with rescue teams.
It was the CIA that used its “unique capabilities” to search for and locate the soldier. “It was like looking for a needle in a haystack.but in this case it was about a brave American soul inside a mountain crevicewhich would be invisible if not for the capabilities of the CIA“, an official source told Axios.
According to the official source, the CIA shared the exact location with the Pentagonthe U.S. Military and the White House, and President Trump ordered a immediate rescue mission.
The Seals were then transported to the location where the pilot was hiding, having opened fire to keep Iranian forces at bay. During the operation, attack planes, which dropped bombs and opened fire against Iranian columns to keep them at bay.
Two of the planes designed to transport the pilot and rescue team to a safe location were immobilized in a remote base in Iran and had to be destroyed to prevent them from falling into Iranian hands, says the NYT.
According to a spokesman for the Iranian Armed Forces’ central command, the rescue operation used an abandoned airport in the southern province of Isfahan, in which two North American C-130 military transport planes and two Black Hawk helicopters were destroyed.
US forces they then resorted to three other aircraft transport to evacuate the soldier and Navy Seal team to a safe location. During withdrawal, the CIA spread a disinformation campaign inside Iran with the news that U.S. forces were removing the pilot from the country by land.
The loss of the F-15E Strike Eagle is the first known case of a North American combat aircraft shot down in hostile territory during the war in Iran. Three Air Force F-15Es were shot down by friendly fire over Kuwait on March 2, and at the time all six crew members ejected safely.
According to Trump, the fact that the crew of the F-15E Strike Eagle and the A-10 Warthog were rescued without no Americans had died shows that the US has “a overwhelming dominance and air superiority“.
However, says The New York Times, the crash of the F-15E and the damage to the A-10 make it clear that a weakened Iranian army still manages to fight back — with a limited but lethal arsenal of missiles and drones.
