35 minutes ago, FourFans said:

"Iranian media" is almost as credible a source as the War Thunder forums...though the forums have more accurate tech data...

Do you genuinely believe the the air-to-ground curb stomping Iran is receiving is on par with the failed all-out invasion a next door neighbor by Russia? Tell me again how you aren't disgruntedemployee's troll account.

From a geopolitical stance yes.

We've shown we can't defend our bases abroad against drones or balastic missiles. A curbstomping doesn't cost us multiple strategic aircraft. It doesn't cost us billion dollar radar arrays. It doesn't cost us American lives. It has Displayed our weaknesses to China. We've shown the degree to which we've ostracised ourselves from our allies with most of Europe refusing over flights. We've shown that we lack any long term planning capabilities or forethought by rushing into this without having a plan for keeping the strait open. We've put iran in a stronger position as they have gone from a theoretical to actual control of the straits. Rising oil prices are increasing the funds in both Iran and Russia's pocket to continue their fight. Iranian leadership may be dead but clearly they're working decentralized ops well. There's no scenario in which we walk away from this in the near term with any meaningful victory. Blowing stuff up doesn't equal winning on the global stage.

Oh and no one trusts on the world stage trusts us to negotiate anymore seeing as it was never serious and used as a pretext to prepare strikes. We had a solid deal that this admin tore up the first time. We've messaged to the world "get nukes ASAP or you're next."

For the photos. A few more have come out plus some vids of a herk and Blackhawk allegedly conducting sar over Iran. I don't trust everything but there's some decent amount of reports coming out and unfortunately our propaganda arm is just as unreliable.

SAR ops vids:

https://x.com/sentdefender/status/2040044384951922868?s=20

https://x.com/Osinttechnical/status/2040059365189722249?s=20b

Edited 2 hours ago2 hr by No One

Now confirmed by the US or is that also fake news? Or is it OK to change the story now that daddy has said? Regardless of my support for this snafu I hope the crew got out.

U.S. Fighter Jet Shot Down Over Iran, U.S. Officials and Iran Say

Edited 2 hours ago2 hr by No One

Wow, this thread took off since I last checked it.

I think one thing most of us can agree on is that the American people should be skeptical anytime any Administration promises a swift, clean military operation. The enemy gets a vote, and it almost always ends up more messy than promised.

We’ve lost access to the Strait of Hormuz, several American lives, and billions of dollars of hardware. We have no choice but to double down now. <s>

https://www.thedailybeast.com/iran-shoots-down-us-f-15-fighter-in-humiliation-for-trump/

2 minutes ago, Sua Sponte said:

https://www.thedailybeast.com/iran-shoots-down-us-f-15-fighter-in-humiliation-for-trump/

At this time Foxnews.com still has their headline story being tiger Woods and it's no where on the Iran page. It's not humiliating until maga gets informed.

If we're lucky Hegseth finally gets canned over this and an actual military professional steps in.

Again?

WSJ confirmed a shoot down but didn’t list their source. Godspeed to the crew if true.

17 minutes ago, frog said:

WSJ confirmed a shoot down but didn’t list their source. Godspeed to the crew if true.

I guess we have an answer on the bounty. Reportedly around 60K.

Mail Online

Iran puts BOUNTY on American pilots after US fighter jet...

Iranian state media is incentivizing civilians to capture American pilots with a 'reward' after the regime claimed it shot down a US fighter jet.

RUMMIT: Pilot was rescued, WSO was captured.

5 hours ago, No One said:

Add another F-15E to the tab? I'm sure China is loving the data and arms testing like we got with Russia in Ukraine. This is quite literally our version of a "3 day special military operation." No word on the crew or other sourcing but it looks legit.

13,000 DMPI's hit in 30+ days of combat ops flying many hundreds of sorties per day with two aircraft damage (that we know of), and ONE shot down. China and Russia are likely shocked at the data.

23 minutes ago, ClearedHot said:

13,000 DMPI's hit in 30+ days of combat ops flying many hundreds of sorties per day with two aircraft damage (that we know of), and ONE shot down. China and Russia are likely shocked at the data.

Don’t be talking with any sense now…

People here want this to fail and all our troops to fail and highlight that only.

Edited 22 minutes ago22 min by jonlbs

This is war...people seem to forget that whether one thinks we're in this for the right reasons or not. People (dorks on Reddit mostly) are calling this an abject failure and how the US isn't the air superiority king it used to be. We've reigned supreme in the air for nearly a half century and people have become accustomed to/expected that to continue. No one wants to see dudes/dudettes get shot down, but it's gonna happen, even with air supremacy. As @ClearedHot pointed out, pretty good mission success rate so far. Further, we haven't faced an adversary with this capability for over 20 years (maybe even going back to DS). This isn't Ahmad taking plink shots with his AK over in the 'Stan.

26 minutes ago, ClearedHot said:

13,000 DMPI's hit in 30+ days of combat ops flying many hundreds of sorties per day with two aircraft damage (that we know of), and ONE shot down. China and Russia are likely shocked at the data.

And yet the straits are closed by Iran doubling the price of oil, the regime is still in power, they still have ballistic missile and long range drone capabilities, and now have a POW for political purposes.

Remind me how many targets did we strike in Afghanistan? Vietnam? What was the result? Strikes do not equal victory. What are our objectives here? Have they been achieved? No one knows because leadership hasn't said and I'm not sure they even know.

It's not that I want this to fail but we have no business being here in the first place. We have no objectives. No means to pull out. No way to achieve meaningful objectives without a long protracted costly and likely bloody conflict. We've been at war in the middle East for decades. Can we stop wasting money, time, and lives over there and focus on home? How are we making America great again when we're slashing funding for infrastructure, Healthcare, etc. to bomb mud huts? When we're irreversibly damaging our soft power by being unreliable negotiators. Trying to bully our European allies to get involved in this. Showing we can't protect our middle Eastern allies who've given us land for bases.

All against Iran. Imagine a near peer like China. We'd be screwed both in the soft and hard power spheres. They're already starting to dominate us in soft power.

2 hours ago, M2 said:

Again?

Y'all are ridiculous. First "it didn't happen" because the multiple reliable osint sources aren't reliable. Then after it's been confirmed by both sides it's "again?" as if it's a joke before knowing the status of the crew. I hope the MIA, potential american POW, has no idea that y'all think this is hilarious.

Edited 4 minutes ago4 min by No One