F-15E jet shot down over Iran • Hacker News Board

Re: F-15E jet shot down over Iran

#261

Post by bwat49 » Fri, Apr 03, 2026, 7:36 PM UTC

dmix wrote: post #178

verdverm wrote: post #167

Earlier quoted context omitted.

First to go down in Iran, but a surprising amount of attritions thus far - 3x F-15 friendly fire - 2x KC-130 refuel mid air collision (1 loss, 1 damaged) - 1x F-35 damaged - 1x AEWACs base strike - 3x KC-130 base strike (same) - 1x F-15 (this one) 2-3 a week is not great for the greatest military, more than half attributable to Iran. With 300+ US casualties, that's ~10/day, a fatality every ~2 days. No boots on the g…

You must not have read about all the hype Iran had before the war and before 2024 especially. The US airforce/navy has performed extremely well. In Desert Storm they lost far, far more aircraft and that only lasted 1.5 months (Iran is 1 month in). Even the ballistic missile strikes against Israel haven't been exceptionally notable, considering Iran is going full-bore and has thousands of ballistic/cruise missiles and…

the big difference with Iran is the strait of hormuz. It doesn't matter how "well" it goes if it stays closed and torpedos the global economy

> inconsistent communication

I feel like "inconsistent communication" is putting it lightly, with trump going back and forth between "we won", "we'll take the oil", and "whatever we'll leave" often within the same day.

Re: F-15E jet shot down over Iran

#262

Post by jwilber » Fri, Apr 03, 2026, 7:36 PM UTC

zabzonk wrote: post #241

kackerlacker wrote: post #207

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is exactly the situation I think of when I hear news of rescue missions. Running a rescue in a place with functional air defense is a recursive rescue problem that could quickly get out of control.

The US did it all the time in Vietnam.

…against the viet cong, where the biggest risk was the pilot getting pierced from small arms fire (in addition to the helo going down from pilot error). Quite different from the anti-air weapons modern day Iran possesses.

Re: F-15E jet shot down over Iran

#263

Post by ranger207 » Fri, Apr 03, 2026, 7:37 PM UTC

zabzonk wrote: post #241

kackerlacker wrote: post #207

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is exactly the situation I think of when I hear news of rescue missions. Running a rescue in a place with functional air defense is a recursive rescue problem that could quickly get out of control.

The US did it all the time in Vietnam.

And it did sometimes get way out of control: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rescue_of_Bat_21_Bravo

Re: F-15E jet shot down over Iran

#264

Post by onion2k » Fri, Apr 03, 2026, 7:37 PM UTC

zabzonk wrote: post #241

kackerlacker wrote: post #207

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is exactly the situation I think of when I hear news of rescue missions. Running a rescue in a place with functional air defense is a recursive rescue problem that could quickly get out of control.

The US did it all the time in Vietnam.

That's an example of things getting out of control.

Re: F-15E jet shot down over Iran

#265

Post by standardUser » Fri, Apr 03, 2026, 7:37 PM UTC

simonh wrote: post #252

standardUser wrote: post #183

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's not a concern it's a reality. Iran is not shut-off or blockaded to any meaningful degree. It has tons of unmolested border crossings and Caspian sea access, and maintains full control within it's own borders (minus the parts that have been blown up).

Also ships are still transiting the Strait of Hormuz to and from Iranian ports taking goods in from China, with who knows what on board. They are also exporting more oil now than they were before the war. I mean special military operation, not war. Only congress can declare war.

Even the Philippines, a US ally, has struck a deal with Iran for safe passage. Meanwhile, Oman is working with Iran on a toll scheme. There's an emerging chance that no US-flagged vessel crosses the Straight of Hormuz again in our lifetimes (except maybe for a retreating 5th fleet).

Re: F-15E jet shot down over Iran

#266

Post by derriz » Fri, Apr 03, 2026, 7:37 PM UTC

victorbjorklund wrote: post #142

If true I can’t imagine it will play well even among Trumps base. When was the last time a US fighter jet was shot down? 1999 during the intervention in the balkans?

Trump leads a personality cult not a traditional political base. There are some who have stopped supporting him because they thought he aligned with their political views but 35% or so of the US population still support him despite his 180 degree turn on two of his foundational election promises: to keep the US out of foreign wars and to bust open an international pedophile ring run for elites.

Re: F-15E jet shot down over Iran

#267

Post by budman1 » Fri, Apr 03, 2026, 7:37 PM UTC

cpursley wrote: post #122

vorpalhex wrote: post #104

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That tweet is from yesterday. Iran tweets about taking down an American jet basically daily. By their count we are down 40 f-35s, 4 aircraft carriers and thousands of MQ-9s.

"We" Very cool that you have a side hustle as a US fighter jet pilot!

It's known as the Air National Guard. Work for United during the week, and fly F16's one weekend a month.

Re: F-15E jet shot down over Iran

#268

Post by [deleted] » Fri, Apr 03, 2026, 7:37 PM UTC

ericmay wrote: post #198

carefree-bob wrote: post #152

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In the first Iraq war, the KARI system in Iraq, which was built by Thompson-CSF, had its specifications leaked and the US obtained access to back doors and codes that allowed it to bypass and/or disable much of that system. You need to remember that the US and much of the West had friendly relations with Iraq and provided some infrastructure assistance and military support because Iraq invaded Iran. No such analogous…

By that same logic that fact that we only lost 1 F-15 in, what, almost 3 weeks of bombing is actually a pretty good sign. Especially when you factor in that the Russians (proven) and Chinese (yet to be proven) are assisting Iran and Iran has been buying and building all of this military infrastructure at the expense of living conditions for its people just for this very attack, only to have almost everything oblitera…

[deleted]

Re: F-15E jet shot down over Iran

#269

Post by RobotToaster » Fri, Apr 03, 2026, 7:38 PM UTC

asdff wrote: post #153

isubkhankulov wrote: post #110

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The crew of the IRIS Dena were warned twice by the US to abandon ship according to a report from one of the sailor’s father. They refused. Not sure if it’s possible to treat enemies better than that. And I doubt the Iranians will treat a US pilot well. Look at how they treat their own citizens.

If the source below is correct, the commander of the Dena ordered his troops to stay on the ship despite the warnings, there was a bit of a mutiny and the survivors are those who rejected those orders and jumped off. https://www.iranintl.com/en/202603071125

That doesn't seem like the most trustworthy source.

>Established in May 2017 and funded by Saudi Arabia,[1][2][3][4][5][6] it actively promotes former Crown Prince Reza Pahlavi as the next ruler of Iran.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iran_International

Re: F-15E jet shot down over Iran

#270

Post by YZF » Fri, Apr 03, 2026, 7:38 PM UTC

fooey wrote: post #164

roadbuster wrote: post #116

During the entire gulf war (Iraq, 1990-91), only two F-15s were shot down via surface-to-air engagement. At the time, Baghdad was known to have the highest density of SAM protection out of any city in the world. An F-15 being shot down in Iran after weeks of strategic bombing of their anti-air defense systems is not a good sign.

The latest reporting is that only 50% of Iran's missile capacity has been destroyed https://www.cnn.com/2026/04/02/politics/iran-missiles-us-mil... Doesn't break out anti-air, but Iran absolutely has a lot of teeth left.

What's the reliability of this reporting?

What we can tell though is that Iran is still firing missiles (including cluster munitions) at Israel's civilians and at gulf states. So the ground facts are that it can still do that.

We also have to remember that Iran has a large number of different missile systems for different ranges. It's mostly not the same missiles they are firing at the nearby gulf states as they are firing into Israel. Some of the longer range missile systems they have need to be fired from western Iran to make it to Israel. There's a lot of other nuance, solid fuel vs. liquid fuel, mobile vs. fixed launchers etc.