US forces carried out a high-risk mission to recover the pilot and weapon systems officer of an F-15 fighter jet -- the first crewed American warplane shot down over Iran in more than five weeks of combat.
President Donald Trump said last week that US-Israeli operations had left Iran with “no anti-aircraft equipment” or radars, but the Islamic republic’s forces subsequently shot down the F-15 and heavily damaged another plane during the rescue mission.
More than 170 American aircraft and some 200 troops took part in the operation to rescue the F-15 crew members, Trump said Monday, an effort that included assistance from the Central Intelligence Agency.
Trump said the F-15 was shot down by a shoulder-fired heat-seeking missile, with the jet’s two-person crew ejecting and landing in different locations inside Iranian territory on Friday morning local time.
“I immediately was asked to make a decision,” Trump told a news conference. “I ordered the US armed forces to do whatever was necessary to bring our brave warriors back home.”
More than 20 military aircraft were dispatched to recover the F-15 pilot, flying over Iran and facing heavy enemy fire, Trump said.
General Dan Caine -- the top US military officer, who spoke alongside Trump -- said these forces “audaciously penetrated enemy territory in broad daylight to find, fix and recover” the pilot.
The pilot was picked up by a flight of rescue helicopters, but these aircraft were then “engaged by every single person in Iran who had a small arms weapon,” the general said. One helicopter was hit and the crew sustained minor injuries but “are going to be fine.”
“This was an incredibly dangerous mission,” Caine said.
US A-10 ground attack aircraft were part of the rescue effort, “violently suppressing and engaging the enemy in a close-in gunfight” to keep Iranian forces away from the downed pilot, according to Caine.
One of the A-10s was hit by enemy fire but continued fighting. Its pilot then flew the plane to an unidentified country and determined the aircraft was not in landable condition.
That pilot ejected over friendly territory and has been safely recovered, Caine said.
Finding the second crew member -- the weapon systems officer, who sits behind the pilot -- was a mission that CIA Director John Ratcliffe likened to “hunting for a single... grain of sand in the middle of a desert.”
“This was... a race against the clock, as it was critical that we locate the downed aviator as quickly as possible, while at the same time keeping our enemies misdirected,” Ratcliffe told the news conference.
The CIA “executed a deception campaign to confuse the Iranians, who were desperately hunting for our airmen,” whom Washington located as of Saturday morning, Ratcliffe said, without providing details on the deception efforts.
The weapon systems officer was injured but managed to evade Iranian forces, traverse rough terrain, treat his own wounds and contact American forces with his location, according to Trump, who said more than 150 aircraft were dispatched as part of the second rescue effort.
“A lot of it was subterfuge. We wanted to have them think he was in a different location because they had a vast military force out there,” Trump said.
Once the crew member was located, two large US planes -- reportedly C-130s -- flew in carrying equipment including three small helicopters that were quickly rebuilt on the ground.
But the larger aircraft became bogged down in sand and could not take off, requiring smaller planes to fly out the US personnel in multiple trips.
Aircraft including the C-130s were reportedly destroyed on the ground to keep them from falling into enemy hands -- bringing the price tag for the lost aircraft to over $250 million.
More than 50 hours after the start of rescue efforts, both of the downed F-15 crew members were back in friendly territory, Caine said.
“These two operations reflect our nation’s most sacred obligation to our military service members,” Caine said. “We leave no one behind.”
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