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U.S. Democratic Congressman Ed Case said Tuesday that the United States has lost 39 aircraft since the start of the war with Iran on Feb. 28, citing a report from a U.S. defense publication.
Case made the remarks during a special Senate committee hearing while questioning Pentagon Chief Financial Officer Jay Hurst about the extent of damage sustained during the conflict.
“We've lost about 39 aircraft, according to a report in The War Zone, and the report is an old one—almost one month old,” Case said.
He asked Hurst whether the Pentagon had calculated “a retention cost on all those aircraft.” Hurst replied that the Pentagon was still assessing the extent of the damage.
“There are costs there, sir, but I want to get back to you in writing and what they specifically are, because, as you can imagine, the repair of aircraft is very hard to calculate,” Hurst said.
“We want to do a full diagnosis of the aircraft before we estimate that cost,” he added.
The report cited by Case, published by U.S. defense news outlet The War Zone, said the U.S. Air Force conducted nearly 13,000 flights during the conflict with Iran.
According to the report, 39 aircraft were destroyed while another 10 sustained varying degrees of damage.
The report also claimed that an F-35A Lightning II fighter jet was hit inside Iranian airspace and that a Boeing E-3 Sentry airborne warning-and-control aircraft was destroyed.
The claims could not be independently verified, and Pentagon officials did not publicly confirm the alleged losses during the hearing.
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Regional tensions escalated after the United States and Israel launched strikes against Iran on Feb. 28, prompting retaliatory attacks by Tehran against Israel and U.S. allies in the Gulf region, along with disruptions in the Strait of Hormuz.
A ceasefire took effect on April 8 through Pakistani mediation, but negotiations held later in Islamabad failed to produce a permanent agreement.
The truce was subsequently extended by U.S. President Donald Trump without a set deadline as diplomatic efforts continued.
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