Eight of America’s Longest Ranged Fighters Damaged in Iranian Strike on Key Airbase

An Iranian ballistic missile strike on Muwaffaq Salti Air Base in Jordan has depleted an estimated $120 million worth of surface-to-air interceptors from U.S. Army MIM-104 Patriot long range air defence systems, after over 30 interceptors were fired to intercept the attack. The strike nevertheless appears to have penetrated the defences around the air base, according to reporting subsequently cited by Reuters, with eight U.S. F-15E fighters and at least one A-10 attack jet damaged. Strikes have leveraged large supplies of older missiles such as the Shahab 3 which were procured in the 1990s, which can be used to rapidly deplete U.S. air defence inventories. 

The strike launched on September 8 targeted the facility due to its position as a hub for U.S. military operations against Iran, including hosting U.S. aircraft involved in regional operations. Its location makes it particularly valuable for projecting air power across Iraq, Syria and the wider Middle East, with its distance from Iran making it more secure than forward facilities in the Gulf region such as Al Udeid Air Base in Qatar. The Patriot launches intended to protect the facility represented over 10 percent of the American arsenal, with each having an estimated value of $4 million. 

The damage is particularly significant because of the importance of the F-15E Strike Eagle, which is the longest ranged fighter type in U.S. service, is relied on heavily due to its substantial weapons payload and leading air-to-air and air-to-ground missions. The fact that approximately eight F-15s reportedly suffered damage indicates that the missiles did not necessarily need to achieve direct hits on individual aircraft to disrupt operations. Ballistic missile warheads detonating near parked aircraft, maintenance areas or other vulnerable parts of an airfield can cause fragmentation and blast damage over a relatively wide area. The F-15’s utility in the recent war effort has contrasted sharply with that of the more complex F-22 fifth generation fighter developed to replace it, which has played a negligible role and suffers from wide ranging performance limitations. 

While Iran lacks modern combat aircraft, its ability to target fighters and other military aircraft on the ground using its vast ballistic missile and drone arsenals allows it to neutralise hostile air power without having to engage it in the air. The vulnerability is particularly important at forward operating bases. Aircraft deployed to the Middle East require runways, fuel storage, weapons facilities, maintenance infrastructure and personnel, which are centred around facilities that are difficult to conceal and, unlike aircraft in the air, cannot evade an incoming missile. Dispersal, hardened shelters, rapid runway repair and active missile defence therefore become as important to maintaining combat power as the performance of the aircraft themselves.

Strikes on the F-15E fleet are far from unprecedented, with satellite imagery released in July appearing to show significant damage to aircraft hangars at King Faisal Air Base in Jordan, lending some visual support to earlier Iranian claims that one of the facilities targeted during recent missile strikes had been successfully hit. The imagery shows a destroyed hangar structure with a large plume of black smoke rising from the site, indicating that at least one of the F-15E Strike Eagle fighters inside was destroyed. The U.S. has lost a considerable number of aircraft to strikes on ground bases, including the recent loss of seven MQ-9 Reaper drones in Jordan, and the loss of an E-3 airborne early warning and control system in Saudi Arabia in March, and losses of multiple KC-135 tankers throughout the conflict.