42 US fighter jets damaged in Iran conflict, Araghchi’s claim accepted!

Recently, the Congressional Research Service (CRS) of the US Parliament prepared a report. It claimed that about 42 American aircraft were either destroyed or damaged in the Iran conflict. Iran’s Foreign Minister Seyed Abbas Araghchi called it a confirmation of the claims that Tehran has been continuously making.

“Several months after the Iran conflict began, the US Congress acknowledged the loss of dozens of aircraft worth billions of dollars,” Iran’s Foreign Minister Seyed Abbas Araghchi wrote on the social platform X, citing the CRS report published on May 13.

According to Araghchi, this shows that their powerful armed forces have the capability to shoot down the F-35. He cautioned that the lessons learned from the conflict show that “a return to war could bring many more surprises.”

The CRS report states that the figure of loss of 42 aircraft may increase, because information in many cases is still confidential and the loss is being confirmed from different sources. According to the information, these also include Strike Eagle fighter jet and special operation plane.

CRS is an organization that provides legal and policy analysis to the US Congress and its committees. He has prepared these figures on the basis of statements from the US Defense Department and the US Central Command as well as media reports.

It was reported that the US Army suffered this loss during Operation Epic Fury. Operation Epic Fury was a 40-day US-Israeli air campaign against Iran that began on 28 February 2026.

According to the report, during a hearing held on May 12, 2026, Presidential Pentagon Comptroller Jules W. Hearst III testified that the department’s cost estimate for military operations in Iran rose to $29 billion. However, the Pentagon has not yet made public any figures of the total loss.