{"id":13504,"date":"2026-04-06T23:24:09","date_gmt":"2026-04-06T23:24:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/13504\/"},"modified":"2026-04-06T23:24:09","modified_gmt":"2026-04-06T23:24:09","slug":"u-s-deployed-armada-with-more-than-150-aircraft-to-recover-downed-aviator-in-iran","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/13504\/","title":{"rendered":"U.S. deployed \u2018armada\u2019 with more than 150 aircraft to recover downed aviator in Iran"},"content":{"rendered":"

The U.S. military surged more than 150 aircraft deep into Iran\u2019s territory this weekend in a search-and-rescue mission President Donald Trump initiated to recover an airman<\/a> who hid in a mountain crevice for almost 48 hours to evade being captured after ejecting from his F-15E fighter jet that was hit by enemy fire.<\/p>\n

When it was struck Thursday night, that F-15E \u2014 known by call sign Dude 44 \u2014 marked the first confirmed shootdown of an American military aircraft by Iran since the war began a little over a month ago.<\/p>\n

\u201cBoth members of the crew ejected from the aircraft and landed alive on Iranian soil. I immediately was asked to make a decision. I ordered the U.S. armed forces to do whatever was necessary to bring our brave warriors back home \u2014 a risky decision, because we could have ended up with 100 dead, as opposed to one or two,\u201d Trump told reporters on Monday. \u201cIt\u2019s a hard decision to make, but in the United States military we leave no American behind.\u201d<\/p>\n

The president discussed what he called this \u201chistoric rescue mission\u201d during a press briefing at the White House, alongside Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Dan Caine, and CIA Director John Ratcliffe.<\/p>\n

According to Trump, U.S. troops took \u201cno casualties of any kind\u201d in the search and rescue missions, which concluded Easter Sunday.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Since the early days of Operation Epic Fury<\/a>, the president and his top advisors have repeatedly asserted that Iran\u2019s air defenses are being completely neutralized<\/a> by U.S. and Israeli forces.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWe took out their anti-aircraft, which is great. We took out their radar. \u2026 We took out a lot, but they still have \u2014 you know, what hit this one was a handheld shoulder missile, a heat-seeking missile,\u201d Trump said Monday. \u201cBut they shot it, and it got sucked in right by the [F-15E\u2019s] engine.\u201d<\/p>\n

The fighter jet\u2019s pilot was rescued in broad daylight on Friday, in a seven-hour operation that he noted deployed 21 military aircraft flying at very low altitude in hostile airspace, \u201cbeing shot by bullets.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

The pilot was extracted by an HH-60 Jolly Green II rescue helicopter, and that mission also involved A\u201110 Warthogs and HC\u2011130 Combat King II variants.<\/p>\n

The second crew member, who Trump referred to as a \u201cheroic weapons system officer,\u201d was \u201cin tough shape\u201d after ejecting, according to the president.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The officer \u201cscaled cliff faces bleeding rather profusely, treated his own wounds, and contacted American forces to transmit his location\u201d from a \u201csophisticated beeper-type apparatus,\u201d Trump said, adding that the technology \u201camazingly saved his life.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

He also thanked the CIA for supporting the mission and pinpointing the pilot in the rugged mountain terrain with a camera.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe immediately mobilized a massive operation to retrieve him from the mountain,\u201d Trump told reporters. \u201cThe second rescue mission involved 155 aircraft \u2014 including four bombers, 64 fighters, 48 refueling tankers, 13 rescue aircraft and more. We were bringing them all over, and a lot of it was subterfuge. We wanted to have [Iranians] think he was in a different location, because they had a vast military force out there. Thousands of people were looking.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

As part of the deception campaign, the CIA deployed human assets and \u201cexquisite\u201d technologies to mislead Iran about the pilot\u2019s whereabouts. U.S. aircraft circled in\u00a0 seven different locations to confuse the Iranian military and trick them into thinking the aviator was elsewhere.<\/p>\n

During his remarks, Caine noted that personnel involved \u201cwere protected overhead by an air armada \u2014 including tactical drones, strike aircraft and others \u2014 and the force fought through multiple contingencies, something no other nation, no other military can do and safely return.\u201d<\/p>\n

He and the other senior officials also confirmed that the U.S. military intentionally opted to destroy two of its own transport planes that became stranded on the ground in Iran and were equipped with sensitive technologies.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe blew them up to smithereens, because we had equipment on the planes that, frankly, we\u2019d like to take, but I don\u2019t think it was worthwhile spending another four hours there taking it off,\u201d Trump said.<\/p>\n

In the first 37 days of Epic Fury, he noted, the joint force has carried out more than 10,000 flights over Iran, striking more than 13,000 targets.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cPer the president\u2019s direction, today will be the largest volume of strikes since day one of this operation. Tomorrow, even more than today. And then Iran has a choice. Choose wisely, because this president does not play around,\u201d Hegseth said.<\/p>\n

In response to the U.S.-led, Israel-coordinated military operation, Iran has brought maritime traffic on a major global shipping route for oil near the Strait of Hormuz to a disruptive standstill.<\/p>\n

At the briefing on Monday, Trump said the U.S. has a plan to \u201cdecimate\u201d every bridge and power plant in Iran if the strait does not re-open by a deadline he\u2019s set<\/a> for midnight EDT Wednesday.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThe entire country can be taken out in one night \u2014 and that night might be tomorrow night,\u201d Trump said.<\/p>\n

\u201cDo I want to destroy their infrastructure? No. It will take them 100 years to rebuild. Right now, if we left, it would take them 20 years to rebuild their country, and it would never be as good as it was,\u201d he also told reporters.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\"Brandi<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tWritten by Brandi Vincent
\n\t\t\tBrandi Vincent is a Senior Reporter at DefenseScoop, where she reports on disruptive technologies and associated policies impacting Pentagon and military personnel. Prior to joining SNG, she produced a documentary and worked as a journalist at Nextgov, Snapchat and NBC Network. Brandi grew up in Louisiana and received a master\u2019s degree in journalism from the University of Maryland. She was named Best New Journalist at the 2024 Defence Media Awards.\t\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The U.S. military surged more than 150 aircraft deep into Iran\u2019s territory this weekend in a search-and-rescue mission…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":13505,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[120],"tags":[11284,11285,5687,12,7324,11286,34,11287,1484,18,520,11288],"class_list":{"0":"post-13504","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-pete-hegseth","8":"tag-centcom","9":"tag-cia","10":"tag-defense-secretary-pete-hegseth","11":"tag-donald-trump","12":"tag-f-15","13":"tag-gen-dan-caine","14":"tag-iran","15":"tag-john-ratcliffe","16":"tag-operation-epic-fury","17":"tag-pete-hegseth","18":"tag-trump-administration","19":"tag-u-s-central-command"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@people\/116360345596195251","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13504","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13504"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13504\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13505"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13504"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13504"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13504"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}