Advent
The “U.S. Aircraft Combat Losses in Operation Epic Fury: Considerations for Congress” document, printed Might 13, 2026, enumerated U.S. plane losses and harm right through Operation Epic Fury towards Iran.[1] This document, along with media protection of those losses, raises suspicions that Iranian air defenses are in a position to systematically exploiting vulnerabilities in U.S. applied sciences to strike or shoot down The united states’s maximum complex struggle plane.
Within the decade previous to this warfare, the U.S. had offered complex plane and applied sciences to a number of Gulf states. The acquisition of complex aerial applied sciences through Doha Information – an in depth associate of Iran and its proxies and the main sponsor of jihadi terrorism international – raised fears inside the U.S. Division of Protection (now the Division of Struggle) referring to conceivable leakage of such generation to adversaries of the U.S. In spite of those fears, Doha Information was once in a position to obtain the F-15 QA, a sophisticated variant of the American F-15 Strike Eagle, and the AH-64E Apache assault helicopter, and is within the means of purchasing a sophisticated variant of the MQ-9 unmanned plane. Some of these plane were downed or crashed whilst on missions over Iran and the Strait of Hormuz within the present warfare.
This document main points key incidents involving crashes or downing of those U.S. plane right through the warfare and examines a conceivable connection to Doha Information’s procurement of those similar varieties of plane and their applied sciences, towards the backdrop of Division of Protection/Struggle fears of generation leakage to adversary states.
The F-15 Strike Eagle Twin-Function Fighter
On March 2, 2026, Iranian air protection techniques had been in a position to down an American F-15 Strike Eagle for the primary time.[2] As quickly because it went down, Iranian forces introduced a manhunt for one of the vital airmen, a colonel, who was once rescued in a wide-ranging U.S. operation in Iranian territory.[3] The incident will have proved disastrous for U.S. ways, technique, and habits of the warfare.
The F-15 has been in provider for some 50 years. Its up to date variant, the Strike Eagle, is likely one of the U.S.’s maximum complex dual-role combatants, 2nd most effective to the F-35 – and in some respects even awesome to it. Despite the fact that it isn’t formally categorised as a stealth fighter, the F-15 Strike Eagle does have complex digital struggle functions that allow it to struggle at each medium and occasional altitudes.[4]
All through the Obama management, a sophisticated variant of the F-15 Eagle, categorised as F-15 QA Ababil, was once evolved through Boeing and offered most effective to Doha Information. At the moment, U.S. Division of Protection officers warned: “This sale involves the release of sensitive technology to Qatar… If a technologically advanced adversary were to obtain knowledge of the specific hardware or software source code in this proposed sale, the information could be used to develop countermeasures which might reduce weapon system effectiveness or be used in the development of systems with similar or advance capabilities. The benefits to be derived from this sale in the furtherance of the U.S. foreign policy and national security objectives… outweigh the potential damage that could result if the sensitive technology were revealed to unauthorized persons.”[5]
The Obama management’s political attention at the moment was once to just accept that generation leakage was once anticipated from the instant the elements reached Doha Information.[6]
A battle-ready F-15 QA Ababil.[7] (Supply: Boeing: Youtube.com/watch?v=S1q_scqG2t4)
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The AH-64E Apache Assault Helicopter
On June 9, 2026, a U.S. AH-64E Apache was once downed through Iran. The helicopter crashed into the ocean whilst patrolling over the Strait of Hormuz, off the coast of Oman. Each pilot and gunner had been rescued. President Donald Trump introduced later that day that CENTCOM had “begun launching self-defense strikes against Iran” in “proportional response to unjustified Iranian aggression.”
Twenty-four Boeing AH-64E Apache assault helicopters had been offered to Doha Information on June 11, 2019 through the Division of Protection beneath the Palms Export Keep an eye on Act.[8] The E variant of the plane is recently essentially the most complex struggle examined multi-mission helicopter on this planet, used additionally through the U.S. itself.
The AH-64E array of missions, in line with Boeing. (Boeing.com/content material/dam/boeing/boeingdotcom/protection/ah-64_apache/downloads/Apache_systems.pdf)
The procurement deal integrated state-of-the-art techniques, a few of them – just like the helicopter’s navigation gadget – categorised as secret.[9] As when it comes to the F-15, the AH-64E sale memoranda decide that:
“If a technologically advanced adversary were to obtain knowledge of the specific hardware and software elements, the information could be used to develop countermeasures that might reduce weapon system effectiveness or be used in the development of a system with similar or advanced capabilities.”[10]
The AH-64E contract displays the management’s prioritization of overseas coverage concerns over U.S. protection and safety concerns, declaring:
“A determination has been made that Qatar can provide substantially the same degree of protection for the sensitive technology being released as the U.S. Government. This sale is necessary in furtherance of the U.S. foreign policy and national security objectives outlined in the Policy Justification”.
A Qatari AH-64E. (Supply: Youtube.com/watch?v=NASHLMOxCOs, March 10, 2021)
The MQ-9 “Reaper” Remotely Piloted Airplane
A complete of 24 MQ-9 “Reaper” remotely piloted plane were misplaced to this point right through Operation Epic Fury.[11]
A March 2025 U.S. Division of State resolution authorized a conceivable sale of the MQ-9B Skyguardian – a sophisticated variant of the Reaper – to the Qatari executive for an estimated value of $1.96 billion.[12] The MQ-9 Reaper producer Normal Atomics signed, on January 19, 2026, a Memorandum of Figuring out with Barzan Holdings, the Doha Information Protection Ministry’s strategic funding arm, to “collaborate on the development of advanced Battle Management software capabilities.”[13]
Normal Atomics CEO Linden Blue (left) and Barzan Holdings Staff CEO Mohammed bin Bader Al-Sadah signal the MoU (Supply: Ga-asi.com/ga-asi-and-barzan-holdings-sign-mou, January 19, 2026).
Normal Atomics MQ-9 Reaper (Supply: Youtube.com/watch?v=pHOulrSvjTk, November 24, 2021)
It will have to be famous that the Apache AH-64E offered to Doha Information is provided with MUM-T (Manned-Unmanned Teaming) Machine, that gives interoperability with the MQ-9 Reaper. If the MUM-T generation had been to leak into the hand of a “technologically advanced” adversary similar to Iran, that adversary would then theoretically be capable to get right of entry to any MUM-T-connected unmanned plane – together with the MQ-9 Reaper – and glean from it real-time streaming knowledge that may allow it to down the plane.
The MUM-T gadget (Supply: Ausa.org/websites/default/recordsdata/apache-manned-unmanned-teaming.pdf, September 2014)
Any other plane misplaced over the Strait of Hormuz right through the warfare that was once interoperable with the MUM-T gadget is the MQ-4C Triton, a $240-million unmanned surveillance and intelligence drone.[14]
The $240 million Triton secret agent drone (Supply: Youtube.com/watch?v=IukdBPWAPc0, December 2, 2024)
The MUM-T Machine, offered to Doha Information as a part of the AH-64E Apache deal in 2019, is in a position to connect with the MQ-9 Reaper’s gadget. Each varieties of plane were downed through Iran. (Supply: Youtube.com/watch?v=khw1M31PAwg, July 19 2018)
The Doha Information-Iran Mutual Safety Cooperation Settlement – And Iran’s Designation Of CENTCOM As A Terrorist Group
The Doha Information-Iran safety cooperation settlement, signed March 9, 2010, was once in line with the pleasant members of the family between the perimeters, the wish to increase world and bilateral cooperation, the wish to improve border cooperation, and the wish to struggle maritime crime, arranged crime, drug smuggling, and terrorism. The underpinning ideas had been mutual reputation of one another’s sovereignty, rules, and world agreements, and nonintervention in each and every different’s affairs.[15]
Beneath Article 2(2) of the settlement, the events would “exchange information on terrorist organizations, the names of their members, their elements, and their activity.”
Article 11(2) mentioned that the 2 aspects decide to an “exchange of data and scientific research results in different areas related to security which are of shared interest.”
Moreover, Article 14(2) states that this will have to be completed thru “exchange of experts and specialists… to combat organized crime… and terrorist acts, and all security areas specified in this agreement.”
Alas, in line with Iranian legislation, which Doha Information dedicated to honor, U.S. CENTCOM is a “terrorist organization.” The designation, from 2019, states that “the United States Central Command (CENTCOM) and all its forces, subsidiaries, and institutions under its control will be designated as terrorists, and any support for these forces in any form of military, intelligence, financial, technical, educational, supply, and services against the IRGC and the Islamic Republic will be considered a terrorist act.”[16]
The 2019 designation of CENTCOM as a 15 may organization within the Iranian Majlis (Supply: Outdated.iranintl.com/en/iran/iranp.cE2p.c80p.c99s-parliament-designates-us-central-command-terrorist-organization, April 23, 2029)
In an reliable remark on April 13, 2026, Khatem Al-Anbiya, the Iranian army central command, declared that “the restrictions imposed by criminal America on maritime navigation and transit in international waters are illegal and constitute an example of piracy.”[17]
Those Iranian designations of U.S. CENTCOM as terrorist and as a pirate entity – i.e. committing maritime crimes – allow Doha Information, which has since 2010 been sure through the protection cooperation settlement with Iran to struggle “terrorism” and “maritime crime,” to move directly to Iran no matter knowledge it obtains about U.S. applied sciences, together with by the use of alternate of “experts and specialists.”
[1] Congress.gov/crs_external_products/IN/PDF/IN12692/IN12692.2.pdf, Might 13, 2026.
[2] Congress.gov/crs_external_products/IN/PDF/IN12692/IN12692.2.pdf, Might 13, 2026.
[3] Theguardian.com/global/2026/apr/05/timeline-us-military-jets-shot-down, April 5, 2026.
[4] Acc.af.mil/Portals/92/Doctors/Factp.c20Sheetsp.c20-%202020p.c20Update/Factsp.c20Sheetsp.c20-%202023p.c20Update/F-15Ep.c20Strikep.c20Eagle_FEBp.c202023.pdf, .February 1, 2023.
[5] Public-inspection.federalregister.gov/2016-28493.pdf?1480081569, November 22, 2016.
[6] Public-inspection.federalregister.gov/2016-28493.pdf?1480081569, November 22, 2016.
[7] The title “Ababil” was once required through the Qataris, It refers to a Quranic verse, Surat Al-Fil, 105:1-5, in line with which Allah stored the Meccans from an assault through the Abyssinian forces led through Abraha who besieged Mecca round 550 CE. Allah despatched ababil birds to throw stones at the besieging military, thereby defeating them.
[8] Federalregister.gov/paperwork/2019/06/17/2019-12665/arms-sales-notification, June 17, 2019.
[9] Federalregister.gov/paperwork/2019/06/17/2019-12665/arms-sales-notification, June 17, 2019.
[10] Federalregister.gov/paperwork/2019/06/17/2019-12665/arms-sales-notification, June 17, 2019.
[11] Congress.gov/crs_external_products/IN/PDF/IN12692/IN12692.2.pdf, Might 13, 2026.
[12] Dsca.mil/Press-Media/Primary-Palms-Gross sales/Article-Show/Article/4136302/qatar-mq-9b-remotely-piloted-aircraft, March 26, 2025; Qa.usembassy.gov/qatar-mq-9b/, March 27, 2025.
[13] Ga-asi.com/ga-asi-and-barzan-holdings-sign-mou, January 19, 2026.
[14] Stripes.com/theaters/middle_east/2026-04-17/drone-persian-gulf-navy-triton-sigonella-21404402.html, April 17, 2026.
[15] Almeezan.qa/AgreementsPage.aspx?identity=1733&language=ar, April 13, 2026.
[16] Outdated.iranintl.com/en/iran/iranp.cE2p.c80p.c99s-parliament-designates-us-central-command-terrorist-organization 23 April 23, 2029.
