Democratic American Congressman Ed Case declared 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 specialized 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 have lost about 39 aircraft, according to a report from The War Zone, and this report is almost a month old,” Case stated, asking Hurst if the Pentagon had calculated “the cost of maintaining all these aircraft in operation.”
Hurst replied, “There are costs, Sir, but I would like to communicate them to you in writing and provide you with precise details, because, as you can imagine, aircraft repairs are very difficult to quantify.”
“We want to perform a comprehensive assessment of the aircraft before estimating the costs,” he added.
The report cited by Case, published by the US Defense specialized media outlet The War Zone, indicates that the US Air Force conducted nearly 13,000 flights during the conflict with Iran.
According to this report, 39 aircraft were destroyed and 10 others suffered varying degrees of damage.
