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

Re: F-15E jet shot down over Iran

#861

Post by amirhirsch » Sat, Apr 04, 2026, 12:08 PM UTC

bijowo1676 wrote: post #357

ttul wrote: post #339

Earlier 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.

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…

Gp was referring to AN/TPY2 which is the THAAD radar.

Iron dome has nothing to do with that systems.

Re: F-15E jet shot down over Iran

#862

Post by cnd78A » Sat, Apr 04, 2026, 12:10 PM UTC

jmyeet wrote: post #214

estearum wrote: post #171

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Seems to me their strategy is to shut down the Strait as cheaply as possible, force ground operations on known strategic points of interest, then just missile and drone strike Americans in Iranian territory where they have ~no air defense.

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…

You forgot one huge players: popular revolutions. All muslims nations that are currently managed by western puppets dictors, every single one. The puppets know their population don't like what Israels and globally most western nations are doing in the middle east and thus tried hard to pretend they support the muslim world. But this war show clearly to their population who these puppets really serve. I bet few revolutions will shake the middle east soon, and those will be powerfull (I don't believe they will create mature democraties, as those things require centuries of progress but, they won't as easy to control). And those revolution won't be easely stolen like the previous one, also because Israel don't seem to realize it lost its support from western nations, it's just a matter a time it ends up on its own.

Re: F-15E jet shot down over Iran

#863

Post by cringleyrobert » Sat, Apr 04, 2026, 12:20 PM UTC

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.

[flagged]

Re: F-15E jet shot down over Iran

#864

Post by cs02rm0 » Sat, Apr 04, 2026, 12:27 PM UTC

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 entire Gulf War was only six weeks long.

It's difficult to compare; but Iran today is not Iraq then. F-15s are now based on a design that's 30 years older. Shoulder launched SAMs have moved on.

I'm not sure what happened here, but in the Gulf War, there was a move to medium altitudes after a dodgy first night and I've seen some footage that, if accurate and if I'm not getting it wrong, suggests there are different tactics going on here.

Re: F-15E jet shot down over Iran

#865

Post by technothrasher » Sat, Apr 04, 2026, 12:51 PM UTC

kelnos wrote: post #297

panarky wrote: post #184

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You overestimate the base. The war machine is already rewriting this as Iranian hostility. The base is incapable of seeing this as a failure of their cult leader. Instead they'll see it as the very rationale and justification of the war. If they were ambivalent about it before, now they'll scream bloody murder for even more off-the-leash barbarism from the US and Israel.

Honestly it seems like the only thing Trump's base cares about is the price of gasoline. They don't give a shit about what's actually happening in the war.

From the MAGA folks I know, they don't even care about the price of gasoline. That was when Biden was president. Now they have excuses. All they really seem to care about is whatever they're currently told to care about by the administration.

Re: F-15E jet shot down over Iran

#866

Post by technothrasher » Sat, Apr 04, 2026, 12:59 PM UTC

aryonoco wrote: post #582

soupfordummies wrote: post #348

At what point is congress gonna grow a spine and retake their power? Every day the goalposts just get moved a little farther.

If you believe, like I do, that there are a lot of parallels between the US of today and the Rome of yesteryear, you might find the answer by reading Tacitus. It turns out, long after Rome had become an Empire and was only a Republic in name only, most Senators still thought of it as a Republic and that this extraordinary state of affairs with the Senate just being a glorified rubber stamp body would soon come to an…

> To their credit, their system lasted a good while.

If we accept your thesis that the US republic is over, it only lasted around half as long as the Roman republic you are saying the "Founding Fathers" were trying to improve upon.

Re: F-15E jet shot down over Iran

#867

Post by KaiserPro » Sat, Apr 04, 2026, 12:59 PM UTC

swyx wrote: post #392

KaiserPro wrote: post #205

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Unless I missed something, Only Hegseth was promising no quarter (ie war crimes)

he what? this is on the record?

https://www.war.gov/News/Transcripts/Transcript/Article/4434...

> Our response? We will keep pressing. We will keep pushing, keep advancing, no quarter, no mercy for our enemies.

March 13, 2026

Re: F-15E jet shot down over Iran

#868

Post by MikeNotThePope » Sat, Apr 04, 2026, 1:02 PM UTC

tasn wrote: post #701

DASD wrote: post #440

Earlier quoted context omitted.

MQ-9s are ~$30 million USD and are strike capable.

Sure. But looking at all of the downed Israeli crafts, they are all $2-5m drones (all 18 of them). For perspective: Patriot missiles cost $4m each.

That’s because Patriots are typically upped, now downed.

Re: F-15E jet shot down over Iran

#869

Post by i_love_retros » Sat, Apr 04, 2026, 1:07 PM UTC

lejalv wrote: post #734

So how is this not flagged, whereas this other post lasted literally minutes before being flagged? https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47612053 75000+ palestinians killed, arguably one of the defining crimes of our age are not worth HN discussion (“politics”) but one F15E shot down in a war of choice is (apparently, “tech”)?

The obvious answer I am not allowed to say but it consists of two words and the second word is "money". Sorry but it's true.

Re: F-15E jet shot down over Iran

#870

Post by lonelyasacloud » Sat, Apr 04, 2026, 1:10 PM UTC

3abiton wrote: post #700

bijowo1676 wrote: post #357

Earlier 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…

Iran was known to have such capabilities, it's baffling the US wasn't more prepared in its gulf bases.

> it's baffling the US wasn't more prepared in its gulf bases.

Probably want to drop the assumptions about it having anything much to do with US interests. Better to start looking at who has had the alliance that contained them damaged and their oil sanctions lifted.