An Iranian strike damaged nine U.S. military aircraft at Muwaffaq Salti Air Base in Jordan this week, hitting one A-10 Thunderbolt II and eight F-15 fighter jets. The damage was disclosed by a U.S. official who spoke anonymously, Defense News reported.
The A-10, widely known as the Warthog, was left with a missing wing. The eight F-15s sustained lighter damage and were returned to service, the official said. The account did not provide a repair timeline for the A-10 or additional details about the condition of the F-15s.
The strike also prompted U.S. forces to use about 30 Patriot interceptors against incoming missiles. That expenditure comes as U.S. officials and defense analysts have focused on the availability of Patriot missiles and other air-defense interceptors during the conflict.
Specific inventory figures are classified. A Center for Strategic and International Studies estimate cited in the Defense News report said that about 65% of U.S. Patriot interceptors had been expended between February and July. The estimate put the remaining inventory below 850 interceptors, compared with 2,330 before the war began.
The attack on the Jordanian base followed a series of actions involving U.S. and Iranian forces. Before the strike, U.S. forces said they had destroyed five Iranian crude-oil carriers. The United States said those attacks came after Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps targeted a U.S. Navy warship with ballistic missiles on two successive days.
Muwaffaq Salti Air Base is one location affected by the broader conflict’s damage to U.S. military equipment. A May report from the Congressional Research Service said 42 U.S. military aircraft had already been lost or damaged. That figure included aircraft affected by Iranian attacks, more than two dozen destroyed drones and aircraft lost in accidents, as described in the Defense News account.
The same report said that 18 U.S. service members had been killed and more than 800 injured since the conflict began in February. Those figures describe the conflict through the time of the May report and are separate from the newly reported damage in Jordan.
The latest account identifies the types and number of aircraft hit at Muwaffaq Salti Air Base but gives no further public detail about the incident’s effect on operations. It does establish that the F-15s returned to service after sustaining light damage, while the A-10 was left with a missing wing. The reported use of Patriot interceptors adds an air-defense dimension to the attack, alongside the physical damage to the aircraft.
The damage and interceptor expenditure were reported after Iranian missiles targeted the base. The account does not provide details about the missiles’ number, the precise timing of the strike or the extent of damage to buildings or other equipment at the installation. The nine aircraft remain the specific U.S. military aircraft identified as damaged in the attack.
Robotic Warfare Analysis Desk