Epic Fury aircraft loss & damage

[Llarry]

The Congressional Research Service released a report on U.S. aircraft losses to date during Operation Epic Fury. See attached.

 

[Griz882]

Interesting. It appears, or implies, that Congress isn’t fully informed - at least at unclassified levels.

 

[Faded Float Coat]

Interesting. It appears, or implies, that Congress isn’t fully informed - at least at unclassified levels.

The result of:
1. a department of defense run by obsequious sycophants with a strange affinity for large groups of men doing pushups together
2. a congress that, out of fear of its own constituents, neutered itself

 

[johnboyA6E]

What do you mean Congress wasn't informed? The CRS report that is linked literally includes a link to the DoD IG report that was delivered to Congress.

Are you saying that this unclassified report (both the inital DoD IG report, and the later CRS report) are underreporting the actual losses?

BTW - the only thing that appears missing from the DoD report is a listing of the intentional destructionn of the 2 MC130s that were stuck in the sand during the CSAR OP. No idea why they aren't there (maybe they are included in a classified version), by the time the report was issued all the OPSEC reasons and optics reasons hide the info were long gone

 

[Griz882]

What do you mean Congress wasn't informed? The CRS report that is linked literally includes a link to the DoD IG report that was delivered to Congress.

Are you saying that this unclassified report (both the inital DoD IG report, and the later CRS report) are underreporting the actual losses?

BTW - the only thing that appears missing from the DoD report is a listing of the intentional destructionn of the 2 MC130s that were stuck in the sand during the CSAR OP. No idea why they aren't there (maybe they are included in a classified version), by the time the report was issued all the OPSEC reasons and optics reasons hide the info were long gone

The structure of the report repeatedly notes things like “multiple articles reported” or “articles citing,” rather than noting a DoD report or CENTCOM statements. It may just be lazy writing, but when I read things like that it indicates that either Congress is relying on news reporting to determine losses, or CRS is too lazy to get their information from the source.

 

[johnboyA6E]

you may have missed it, in the first paragraph the bold text links to the source doc

The Department of Defense (DOD, which is “using a secondary Department of War designation,” underExecutive Order 14347 dated September 5, 2025) on September 14, 2026, published a Lead InspectorGeneral (Lead IG) Report to the United States Congress on Operation Epic Fury (OEF), which assessed certain equipment losses relating to operations against Iran between April 1 and June 30 (the bold text is the link)

which links to this doc published by DoD IG - https://media.defense.gov/2026/Sep/09/2003993626/-1/-1/1/OEF_Q3_JUN2026_FINAL_508 SECURE.PDF#page=20

The DoD report only includes date through 6/30, and the CRS adds things that occurred afterwards, some reported by CENTCOM, others attributed to "articles" or "reports". There will be another report published early November with Q4 data through end of September

 

[Swanee]

Congress is aware. The question is whether they'll pony up the money (and taxes) to pay for replacing our losses and rebuilding our reserves, or if they make it the next guys' problem. Jokes on them, not raising taxes may get them reelected but they'll have to explain to their constituents why the bases around them are shutting down.

The MQ-9 community is in real danger of not having the tails we need to execute existing operational and initial training needs. We're at a "pick one, we can't do both anymore" moment.