Democratic congressman Ed Case said on Tuesday that the United States had lost 39 aircraft since the beginning of the war against Iran on February 28, citing a report from a US defense publication.
Case made these remarks during a special hearing before a Senate committee, questioning the Pentagon’s chief financial officer, Jay Hurst, about the extent of the damage suffered during the conflict.
“We’ve lost about 39 aircraft, according to a report from The War Zone, and this report is almost a month old,” Case said, asking Hurst if the Pentagon had calculated “the cost of maintaining all these aircraft.”
Hurst replied, “There are costs, sir, but I would like to provide them to you in writing and give you precise details, because, as you can imagine, estimating the cost of aircraft repair is very difficult.”
“We want to conduct a full assessment of the aircraft before estimating the costs,” he added.
The report cited by Case, published by the US defense media outlet The War Zone, states that the US Air Force conducted nearly 13,000 flights during the conflict with Iran.
According to the report, 39 aircraft were destroyed and 10 others sustained varying degrees of damage.
