Both crew members of the F-15E Strike Eagle shot down over western Iran on April 3 have been rescued, U.S. officials confirmed Sunday. The pilot was extracted Saturday by U.S. special forces in what officials described as a "complex operation." [1] The weapons systems officer, whose fate had been uncertain for two days, was recovered Sunday. Trump posted "WE GOT HIM!" both times. [2]

The rescues are the best news of the war for the U.S. military since it began. They are also the occasion for a clearer accounting of what has been lost. RealClearDefense published the most comprehensive tally on April 3: the U.S. has had dozens of crewed and uncrewed aircraft destroyed or damaged, costing billions of dollars. [3] The confirmed crewed losses stand between seven and ten aircraft, depending on how destroyed-versus-damaged is categorized. The uncrewed losses are larger: more than a dozen MQ-9 Reaper drones confirmed lost, several to Iranian missile fire, others destroyed on the ground in Iranian retaliatory strikes. [4] The F-15E was the first confirmed loss of a manned combat aircraft to direct Iranian fire in the war -- previous crewed losses involved the KC-135 crash in western Iraq in March and friendly-fire incidents. [3]

The rescue operations required dozens of armed aircraft and penetrated deep into Iranian territory -- an operational complexity the Pentagon has not publicly detailed. Iran claimed to have downed additional aircraft during the rescue operation. [2] The U.S. has not confirmed or denied those claims. The gap between the official loss count and the Iranian claims is one of the war's persistent information problems: both governments have incentives to misrepresent the numbers, and independent verification in active Iranian airspace is impossible.

-- SAMUEL CRANE, Washington