Iran War & Military — 2026-05-20

CRS Reports 42 US Aircraft Lost or Damaged in Operation Epic Fury With Pentagon Cost Estimate at 29 Billion Dollars

BLUFConfirmed undercounts and excluded base damage mean Congress is sizing the Epic Fury supplemental against a floor, not a ceiling, with low-density platform replacement as the binding constraint on force regeneration.

A May 13 Congressional Research Service report lists 42 U.S. aircraft lost or damaged in Operation Epic Fury, including 24 MQ-9 Reapers, seven KC-135 Stratotankers, four F-15E Strike Eagles, two MC-130J Commando IIs, and one each of an E-3 Sentry, F-35A Lightning II, A-10 Thunderbolt II, HH-60W Jolly Green II, and MQ-4C Triton 12. DOD has not published its own accounting; Acting Pentagon Comptroller Jules W. Hurst III testified on May 12 that the cost estimate has reached $29 billion, driven by refined repair and replacement figures, with regional base damage excluded 13. The Aviationist reported on May 20 that the tally omits up to four MH-6 Little Birds destroyed in Iran during the April CSAR mission and that at least one E-3 Sentry listed as damaged was in fact destroyed 4.

Analysis
The CRS tally is a documented floor: confirmed omissions include up to four MH-6 Little Birds destroyed in Iran and at least one E-3 Sentry apparently destroyed rather than damaged, per open-source imagery analysis by The Aviationist. Congress is consequently negotiating supplemental appropriations against an incomplete baseline, and the $29 billion Pentagon estimate compounds the exposure by excluding regional base infrastructure damage. The MH-6 gap may reflect informal DoD-CRS coordination rather than an independent editorial error. The E-3's shuttered production line makes replacement timelines the sharpest near-term constraint for force planners, regardless of how the final accounting resolves.

4 sources

U.S. Aircraft Combat Losses in Operation Epic Fury: Considerations for Congress - Congressional Research Service / Congress.gov
Report to Congress on U.S. Aircraft Combat Losses in Operation Epic Fury - USNI News
42 aircraft lost or damaged in Operation Epic Fury, congressional report says - Stars and Stripes
Congressional Report on Operation Epic Fury Lists 42 U.S. Aircraft Damaged or Destroyed - The Aviationist