{"id":36414,"date":"2026-03-26T02:32:12","date_gmt":"2026-03-26T02:32:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/36414\/"},"modified":"2026-03-26T02:32:12","modified_gmt":"2026-03-26T02:32:12","slug":"navy-f-18-shot-down-near-strait-of-hormuz","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/36414\/","title":{"rendered":"Navy F-18 shot down near Strait of Hormuz"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/timesofsandiego.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/Hornet-Launch.jpg?ssl=1\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><img loading=\"lazy\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"780\" height=\"439\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/Hornet-Launch.jpg\" alt=\"F\/A-18 launches\" class=\"wp-image-372798\"  \/><\/a>A Navy F\/A-18 Super Hornet launches at night from the USS Abraham Lincoln. (Photo from Navy video)<\/p>\n<p>Iran claimed Wednesday that it shot down a Navy F-18 jet near the vital Strait of Hormuz, prompting a quick denial from <a href=\"http:\/\/www.centcom.com\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Central Command<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>In a \u201cfact check\u201d post on X, Centcom said the claim was false, adding that \u201cno U.S. fighter aircraft have been shot down by Iran.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Video provided by Iran and shared by Centcom showed an F-18 maneuvering over Chabahar on the southeast coast and a bright object appearing nearby. But the video did not show a stricken plane or subsequent crash.<\/p>\n<p>Iran said the U.S. jet was targeted \u201cusing new advanced air defense systems.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The F-18 in the video was likely from the San Diego-based aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln, which is in the north Arabian Sea.<\/p>\n<p>Aboard the nuclear-powered carrier are three squadrons of Navy F-18s from <a href=\"https:\/\/cnrsw.cnic.navy.mil\/Installations\/NAS-Lemoore\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Naval Air Station Lemoore<\/a> near Fresno and one squadron of Marine Corps F-35C stealth fighters from Miramar.<\/p>\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">\ud83d\udeabFALSE: The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps announced a U.S. F\/A-18 fighter was struck over Chabahar using new advanced air defense systems.<\/p>\n<p>\u2705TRUE: No U.S. fighter aircraft have been shot down by Iran. <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/I25QFjYo0l\" rel=\"nofollow\">pic.twitter.com\/I25QFjYo0l<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 U.S. Central Command (@CENTCOM) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/CENTCOM\/status\/2036869094595568037?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">March 25, 2026<\/a> <\/p>\n<p>Early in Operation Epic Fury, Iran claimed to have hit the Lincoln with missiles, a claim that was also <a href=\"https:\/\/timesofsandiego.com\/military\/2026\/03\/01\/iranian-missiles-targeting-uss-abraham-lincoln-didnt-come-close\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">quickly refuted<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Iran\u2019s coastal defenses are increasingly being targeted in an effort to open the Strait of Hormuz for international oil tankers.<\/p>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A Navy F\/A-18 Super Hornet launches at night from the USS Abraham Lincoln. (Photo from Navy video) Iran&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":36415,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[2656,16222,102,34,1488,101,3736],"class_list":{"0":"post-36414","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-strait-of-hormuz","8":"tag-central-command","9":"tag-f-18","10":"tag-hormuz","11":"tag-iran","12":"tag-navy","13":"tag-strait-of-hormuz","14":"tag-uss-abraham-lincoln"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@iran\/116293136731814488","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36414","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=36414"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36414\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/36415"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=36414"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=36414"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=36414"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}