by roadbuster
35 subcomments
- During the entire gulf war (Iraq, 1990-91), only two F-15s were shot down via surface-to-air engagement. At the time, Baghdad was known to have the highest density of SAM protection out of any city in the world.
An F-15 being shot down in Iran after weeks of strategic bombing of their anti-air defense systems is not a good sign.
- So how is this not flagged, whereas this other post lasted literally minutes before being flagged? https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47612053
75000+ palestinians killed, arguably one of the defining crimes of our age are not worth HN discussion (“politics”) but one F15E shot down in a war of choice is (apparently, “tech”)?
by nycdatasci
2 subcomments
- There’s a lot of speculation about how this was achieved, but little mention of the likely weapon system that was used:
https://israel-alma.org/the-growing-air-defense-capabilities...
The SA-67 is essentially a hybrid surface-to-air missile and loitering drone that operates like an airborne mine. It’s a pretty innovative weapon: instead of relying on a fast, highly detectable rocket motor, it uses a small gas turbine and passive infrared seeker to silently loiter in a combat zone and then ambush aircraft without ever triggering their traditional radar warning receivers.
by MarkMarine
12 subcomments
- Military aviators train for this, being alone behind enemy lines (look up SERE school if you’re curious, one of the craziest training courses outside of special forces) and there is a special force just for aviator recovery behind enemy lines, US AirForce Pararescue. Hopefully they’ll get the aviators back quickly, the last thing our country needs is American hostages making this ridiculous war harder to stop.
by nmbrskeptix
1 subcomments
- To unpoison y'alls priors, I want to remind HN that in the Kosovo air campaign, the Yugoslavs took out a nighthawk (F117) and an F16. They claimed more nighthawks that limped home.
The F117 is a very stealthy plane, given its geometry (flat panels). Yet a 1960s radar with essentially no digital equipment took it out, largely using human intelligence and guerrilla tactics.
Iran has modern digital electronics (to improve the signal to noise ratio, merge different data sources, etc) and modern electronics. They are also master guerrilla fighters and have, great, native missile technology.
Iranian airspace is contested at best. We certainly do not have air superiority over it.
by thatsfunnylol
6 subcomments
- The Hormuz issue proves that the west never had an ability to economically sanction Iran, au contraire Iran can actually sanction us - and they are.
This is what real sanctions look like. The west broke the deal, attacked like terrorists, and are now being sanctioned.
- I hope the aviators are OK, and also hope whoever they were bombing are also OK.
I do wonder if Iran finds them first, will they treat them better than the US treated survivors of the ship sunk by a US torpedo in the Indiana Ocean?
- List of aviation shootdowns and accidents during the 2026 Iran war:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_aviation_shootdowns_an...
Iran: 40, Israel: 18, US: 36, Others: 7
- One crew member rescued, other is still MIA and being actively searched for
https://www.axios.com/2026/04/03/iran-us-fighter-shot-down
- Impossible. Iran's army was already demolished weeks ago, and there's "nothing left". What did they take it down with, bb guns?
by wesselbindt
5 subcomments
- The article says this is the first jet that was shot down by enemy fire this war, but this confuses me. Was the F35 that was downed a while back friendly fire or something? Are F35s not fighter jets?
by markus_zhang
1 subcomments
- I think an A-10 is also down (pilot ejected and safe). I'm surprised that they decided to fly an A-10 into Iran. I mean it's a solid plane that can sustain some AD fire, but at the same time it usually operates within the height that MANPADs can reach.
- Average comments sentiment when an American is caught having killed a clerk during a robbery: hope they fry him on the chair
Average comments sentiment when an American is caught while bombing bridges and elementary schools: poor thing hope they treat him well
- Second one in 24hrs…and that’s with their “anti-air defenses destroyed”, per our Commander in Chief
by jimnotgym
1 subcomments
- I feel for the pilot and his family. This is more bad news. No good can come from this war.
- Why didn't Iran use its capability to take down enemy jets for an entire month?
- I see a ton of bickering, however, I simply have to ask the question: how can anyone justify the United States of America and Israel attacking ANY country? It isn't our job, nor is it Israel's, to try and be the world police. People are dying, and because of a certain corpse-to-be controlling MY country, the world is beginning to suffer and it is going to get so much worse. Some economists are saying gas rationing will begin happening within the next 9-15 months. Iran has NO incentive to be diplomatic. On top of that, invisible damage that nobody is reporting about is being done...damage that could last years or possibly decades to very small, yet super important parts of the world supply chain that powers everything from fertilizer to pharmaceuticals. There is not a single person in the world that should be supporting this war. I don't care what your beliefs are. The results WILL affect you, and you won't get a bailout.
- apparently, Iran is claiming that the search and rescue helicopter has also been hit by a projectile.
- Although Iran is a tenacious nation, the United States is weakening.
The United States of the past would not have made such a mistake.
by Muskoxworks
0 subcomment
- When China or Russia manage to produce air defence that is truly a risk for US/Nato, it will truly change the power dynamics.
- Wall Street Journal: https://www.wsj.com/livecoverage/iran-war-news-2026?mod=WSJ_...
"U.S. Conducting Rescue Operation After Jet Went Down Over Iran"
- Also reported at https://theaviationist.com/2026/04/03/iran-f-15e-debris/
- cough and an A10
- https://www.axios.com/2026/04/03/iran-us-fighter-shot-down
by victorbjorklund
4 subcomments
- If true I can’t imagine it will play well even among Trumps base. When was the last time a US fighter jet was shot down? 1999 during the intervention in the balkans?
by cosmicgadget
0 subcomment
- That Kuwaiti F-18 pilot is a bit far from home.
- not the first, won't be the last
- Good. Americans need to pay a very severe price for the evil they have unleased on the world. Anything less, and this lunacy will happen again in the future.
by zoklet-enjoyer
1 subcomments
- I'll probably get downvoted for this but whatever. I was in 9th grade and the 2003 invasion of Iraq was just getting underway. We had a substitute teacher in my chemistry class and he was telling stories about being a pilot during the first war. This other kid in the class kept asking questions and pretending like he was really interested in this guy's stories. This dude is bragging like he was a big shot pilot and whatever. And then my classmate asked the teacher how many people he murdered and how many of them were kids our age. This dude got pissed and started arguing and justifying the shit, but then just shut up about it for the rest of the time he was subbing. It was great. It's always good to remember that war crimes don't happen if the people choose not to carry them out. The people in charge are responsible too, but the ordinary military members who follow those orders are disgusting.
So anyway, I hope this pilot is having a bad time. He made a poor series of decisions and now is dealing with the consequences.
by solid_fuel
2 subcomments
- I'm an American and a patriot and the way I want to see this end is with Pete Hegseth and others from this nightmare administration delivered to the Hague, in chains.
- Is this not just FAFO?
by mothballed
1 subcomments
- If the pilots are recovered we probably won't hear about it from either side for hours. Iran will want to get them a mile underground before they send out the B-rolls. If recovered by the US, they will want them out of theater before anyone knows better so they can't be targeted.
- CNN is reporting this confirmed by three US sources
https://www.cnn.com/2026/04/03/politics/us-fighter-jet-iran
by soupfordummies
7 subcomments
- At what point is congress gonna grow a spine and retake their power? Every day the goalposts just get moved a little farther.
by 1970-01-01
0 subcomment
- Any rescue operation is technically 'boots on the ground'
by JohnTHaller
2 subcomments
- Let's hope Iran doesn't follow the "no quarter, no mercy" policy laid out by US Secretary of War Pete Hegseth. For the unfamiliar, it means executing survivors and surrendering combatants. Aka war crimes.
by josefritzishere
4 subcomments
- This is the dumbest, most pointless military conflict in American history. There is nothing plausible to win, but we can conceivably lose everything. A pyric victory is among the most favorable outcomes. We are led by corrupt imbeciles. I can only hope the outcome includes regime change for the U.S.
- The scale of American air dominance is best demonstrated by how much of a news this event is. In 1999 the scandal was that Serbs managed to shoot down a stealthy plane with then-30 year old Soviet SAM. Now being able to shoot down a nonstealthy one having most modern Russian SAMs in existence is news worthy of being on every screen for 24 hours and collecting 1000+ comments on HN.
Warplanes are disposable. They are built to be shot down. If they aren't, they are not being used intensely enough or are just wrong tools for the job - a warplane that flies a mission and always comes back is like a test that never fails.
by CrzyLngPwd
0 subcomment
- Imagine ejecting from your plane over Iran because Israel told Trump to do the things he said he wouldn't do.
What a waste of life and energy.
by up2isomorphism
0 subcomment
- LLM won’t help.
by zoklet-enjoyer
1 subcomments
- Oh well, it was bound to happen. We need to get the Hell out of there.
- Maybe they shouldn't be attacking Iran? Duhhhhhh.
- What would happen if you organized a No Kings rally in Iran?
by shevy-java
2 subcomments
- One less to bomb schools with girls.
I feel that the current war is by far the most closest to showing to people that this war is waged by the rich. Because they are the primary ones to benefit right now (if we ignore Netanyahu, but Netanyahu's war goals "make sense", e. g. this is done for expansion and/or control; Trump's involvement makes no real sense, except for benefitting some with insider trading and making other cronies rich).
by standardUser
0 subcomment
- Via the NYT:
Mohammad Ghalibaf, the speaker of Iran’s Parliament and a key government figure overseeing the war, took to social media to mock the Trump administration as U.S. forces searched for a missing American airman from a downed fighter plane. “This brilliant no-strategy war they started has now been downgraded from ‘regime change’ to ‘Hey! Can anyone find our pilots? Please?’”he said in a post on X. “Wow. What incredible progress. Absolute geniuses.”
by epolanski
1 subcomments
- > A particular concern, they said, was threats made by the US to Iran’s energy infrastructure. “International law protects from attack objects indispensable to the survival of civilians, and the attacks threatened by Trump, if implemented, could entail war crimes.”
I am not going to lie, I am beyond disgusted at the United States.
And the "it's Trump" card doesn't work, Americans defend this travesty of an old non functioning constitution.
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by mwizamwiinga
0 subcomment
- [flagged]
- the last time US wanted some country to reset back to Stone Age the same thing happened. turn out those aircrafts are not undefeatable at all.
by oort-cloud9
0 subcomment
- [dead]
- why is this not showing at top of HN search sorted by date?
https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=false&qu...
- previous conversation at https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47626347
- Why is the US there again? Open up a straight that was open?
Not expecting a reply.
by ChrisArchitect
1 subcomments
- [dupe] Earlier: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47626347
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47627182
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by ChrisArchitect
1 subcomments
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by throw03172019
1 subcomments
- [flagged]
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- Don't worry. It's ok. Just think ... Top Gun Maverick.
by hereme888
2 subcomments
- Iran, who armed itself to the teeth, shoots down a 30-yr-old fighter jet. Crew expected to have survived.
Acceptable win ratio for the U.S. (whom many of you despise).
- There were thousands of iranian jets shot down but the worlds go crazy when a single us jetzt was shot down
by chakintosh
2 subcomments
- The United States will never understand that while they are a technologically advanced army, they will consistently get smoked by countries with a far more rudimentary arsenal. It's been happening in every war since Vietnam.
The US could probably steamroll Russia in a week, because both countries will try to deploy the latest tech they have, and the US blows Russia out of the water. But in Iran, Iraq, Afghanistan, Somalia ... etc, their stealth jets and raptors stand no chance with weapons so old that those new systems didn't even account for.
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