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.
Seriously. Makes me glad we attacked when we did. They could have bolstered their anti air defenses even more.
F-15E jet shot down over Iran
481–490 of 1001 posts
Re: F-15E jet shot down over Iran
#482Earlier quoted context omitted.
> ignoring the spicier broader debate of if the whole Iran campaign was the right call or not How spicy of a debate is that really? How many people outside of the admin and the dwindling hardcore trump base actually thought this was a good idea?
Apparently 37.7% of Americans, so roughly 116 million people, support the war. I'm not sure "this was a good idea" was a the exact question though. https://yougov.com/en-us/articles/54454-most-americans-oppos... https://www.natesilver.net/p/iran-war-polls-popularity-appro... Clearly this war isn't popular but that's a far cry from saying there's no debate. Like many other topics/questions we're seeing people followin…
> Apparently 37.7% of Americans,
These are the same thing. The MAGA base is fracturing and the polls are showing that with the very number you are using as a retort.
Re: F-15E jet shot down over Iran
#483Earlier quoted context omitted.
a single AN/FPS-132 radar costs $1.1 bln, not $500m. And Iran stuck 17 of the CENCCOM sites hosting radars of all kinds across Qarar, Bahrain, Iraq, UAE, Saudi, Jordan, Israel, etc). Total cost is so much bigger, it is staggering. The whole CENTCOM is blind basically, as well as Iron Dome which relied on these radars - all blind now, in addition to long-range early nuke detection to protect CONUS is also blind. in ad…
Fact check on this brand new account?
Re: F-15E jet shot down over Iran
#484Military aviators train for this, being alone behind enemy lines (look up SERE school if you’re curious, one of the craziest training courses outside of special forces) and there is a special force just for aviator recovery behind enemy lines, US AirForce Pararescue. Hopefully they’ll get the aviators back quickly, the last thing our country needs is American hostages making this ridiculous war harder to stop.
TBH I went through SERE school (aircrew) and I questioned its value, since the training is in eastern Washington/northern Idaho area mountainous woodland environment and all the evasion they showed us relied on that kind of cover and "bushcraft" And you know, Iraq, Afghanistan, and Iran are definitely not eastern Washington lol
Re: F-15E jet shot down over Iran
#485Earlier quoted context omitted.
Iran isn't just central Tehran. Look up the Zagros Mountains and the Alborz Mountains. Or just look at a picture of the northern Tehran skyline, it is at the foot of the Alborz, a huge mountain range. There's plenty of woodlands and forest too. Some parts of the Hyrcanian forests get over 50 inches of annual rainfall, which isn't Forks, WA, but it is substantial.
You're reinforcing parents point by highlighting the variety: at most, just 1 of the areas is a close match to the terrain at the training grounds.
Re: F-15E jet shot down over Iran
#486Earlier quoted context omitted.
Not to mention the multiple THAAD radars taken offline. Those are $500M assets - and only 8 exist in the world. 24,000 precise transceivers all liquid cooled… not available on Amazon for next day deliver either.
we have likely moved on from this to satellite as a stop gap.
Re: F-15E jet shot down over Iran
#487Re: F-15E jet shot down over Iran
#488Earlier quoted context omitted.
Their point is that the NYT says it crashed, the cause isn't clear.
Do A-10's normally crash? Or is there reason to believe that an A-10 flying in hostile territory was downed because it was shot?
Re: F-15E jet shot down over Iran
#489If 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?
> Approval of Trump among Republicans has slipped to a second-term low of 84%, down from 92% last March. At the same time, an all-time high 16% of Republicans disapprove. This shift can be attributed, at least in part, to declining support among non-MAGA Republicans, as approval dropped 11 points in the last year among this group (70% in March 2025 to 59% today). Virtually all MAGA Republicans continue to approve of Trump, with 98% approving a year ago and 97% now.
> https://www.foxnews.com/politics/fox-news-poll-voters-oppose...
Re: F-15E jet shot down over Iran
#490Earlier quoted context omitted.
There are 4 players in this war and they all have very different goals and "victory" conditions. 1. Israel wants to ruin Iran permanently, to turn it into Somalia 2.0, meaning a quasi-state with no organized, central government. Were they to succeed in this it would be a humantarian disaster the likes of which we haven't seen since probably WW2. Tens of millions of refugees that will probably collapse surrounding cou…
Not sure how the US comes back from this. Who will trust US treaties going forward?
It shouldn't. The responsible course going forward is a constitutional convention and the dissolution of the United States.