CSAR operasjonen i iran - Hele den ekstremt kostbare historien her

 

Ghost of Eagle Claw: US pulls off daring Iran rescues, but at a cost that should give pause

The US military's successful rescue of two aircrew in Iran was a powerful display of capability but came with significant risk.

 

The pilot and weapons system officer (WSO) made international headlines when their Boeing F-15E was shot down over Iran on 3 April. A 6 April briefing by US President Donald Trump suggested a race against time: would the USA rescue its own before the Iranians arrived?

Combat search and rescue (CSAR) teams secured the pilot quickly, although a Sikorsky HH-60W took heavy small arms fire and a crewmember sustained minor injuries.

But the WSO, injured, was on the run for two days, with Iranian forces closing in. He climbed to higher ground and hid in what US Secretary of War Pete Hegseth describes as a "crevice."

An armada of 155 aircraft was dispatched to save the wounded WSO, with aircraft refueling over Iranian territory. The effort included landing at least two Lockheed Martin MC-130J special mission transports ferrying special operations troops at what Trump describes as a "farm."

The MC-130Js were also carrying Boeing MH-6 Little Birds, which would be able to provide force protection and, being nimble, likely very effective at snatching the WSO from a tight spot.

But after securing the WSO, poor soil conditions prevented the MC-130Js from taking off, resulting in both being destroyed to prevent their capture by Iran. Up to four MH-6s were also apparently destroyed. The CSAR personnel were eventually extracted by other aircraft, likely Airbus C295Ws, but only after a tense wait on the ground.

The mission deprived Tehran of a major propaganda coup. Had the WSO been captured he would certainly have been paraded before the world's media, as enemies have done with downed American pilots in previous conflicts.

The rescue also underlined the penchant of Trump and Hegseth for complex, high-risk operations. These include the June 2025 Midnight Hammer raid against Iranian nuclear facilities, and the dramatic seizure of Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro in January.

However professional the US military may be, when undertaking a series of such operations it is only a matter of time before something goes wrong.

In the first rescue effort for the F-15E's pilot, the HH-60W managed to escape, but US H-60s have been shot down before, notably in the battle of Mogadishu on October 1993. In that episode a tight, well choreographed raid by elite US forces descended into chaos after the loss of two UH-60s to rocket-propelled grenades.

As for the effort to rescue the WSO, weather or some other contingency could have prevented the dispatch of spare aircraft, or the rescue aircraft may have bogged down themselves, or suffered some other technical issue. In each scenario, a small number of American troops would have found themselves in a pitched battle against vastly superior Iranian forces.

And if Iran had been able to down one of the American transports, the loss of life would have been catastrophic, and potentially transformative to Trump's unpopular war effort.

Such an outcome would have been reminiscent of another debacle in the Iranian desert half a century ago, when the US military attempted to rescue American hostages held at the US Embassy in Tehran.

Operation Eagle Claw unraveled in disaster when a Sikorsky RH-53D Sea Stallion helicopter collided with an EC-130 at a remote desert staging point in Iran. Eight service members died. The fiasco resulted in a chaotic withdrawal and a national humiliation for the USA.

The echoes with the mission to save the WSO are striking: aircraft issues, a race against time, and the specter of humiliation hanging over every decision.

Nonetheless, skill and a bit of luck saw the USA pull off not one but two impressive rescue missions. The equipment lost was valuable but, unlike human lives, can be replaced.

Trump, a former casino magnate, has yet again rolled the dice and won, but sooner or later even the best gambler hits a cold streak.

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