US Air Force

The US Air Force is the primary strike arm of Operation Epic Fury, which launched on 28 February 2026. In the first four weeks alone, USAF and Coalition aircraft fired more than 1,000 JASSM-ER Cruise Missiles against Iranian air defence networks, Ballistic missile infrastructure, and hardened command centres. The campaign has also seen B-52 Stratofortress bombers fly overland strike missions inside Iran for the first time in the conflict, dropping JDAM-guided gravity bombs after a 30-day restriction to standoff range was lifted.

The air war has extracted a price. On 3 April 2026, an F-15E Strike Eagle of the 494th Fighter Squadron became the first US aircraft lost in combat, shot down over western Iran; one crew member was rescued after 36 hours evading IRGC forces, and a CIA-directed ground team extracted him. An A-10 Warthog was also downed the same day, and a second A-10 was lost in the subsequent search and rescue operation, its pilot ejecting into the Persian Gulf. The EA-37B Compass Call electronic warfare aircraft — the most advanced signals-jamming platform in the US inventory, based on the Gulfstream G550 — made its first ever combat deployment in the conflict, accelerated to patch a battle management gap left by degraded AWACS coverage.

Despite striking over 12,300 targets and destroying 155 Iranian vessels, the Air Force has not achieved air dominance over Iran. Iranian air defences have survived 37 days of sustained bombardment, continuing to down US aircraft and complicating the potential escalation to ground operations. The JASSM-ER drawdown — consuming 2.5 years of planned production each month — has stripped Pacific Command of its primary long-range deterrence capability against China, reshaping US strategic posture globally.