Following that, news arrived that Iran had also struck another American combat aircraft on Friday. None of these incidents indicate that Iran has suddenly achieved a roughly equal military position. So far, American losses have been limited, including the fact that there have been no confirmed fatalities in the past three weeks.
However, CNN reports, in a conflict where military superiority is the United States' main advantage, this case highlights the dangers of asymmetric warfare, the costs of which the American public already does not accept.
These events also undermine the claims of the Donald Trump administration regarding complete air dominance over Iran, as well as the image of impenetrability it has been trying to build over the past month.
Trump and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth have suggested that the United States and Israel have almost complete freedom to fly over Iran. They portrayed Tehran as incapable of responding. At a briefing on March 4th, Hegseth stated that such dominance was within reach.
"Starting last night, and to be completed in a few days, less than a week or two, the two most powerful air forces in the world will have complete control over Iranian skies," Hegseth said.
He called it an "unchallenged airspace."
Trump has also emphasized this air dominance over the past two weeks.
However, the administration's claims about military air dominance have been absolute, using terms like "complete control" and "unchallenged airspace," even portraying Iran as a country without the capability to respond.
This is just the latest example of Trump and his associates clearly exaggerating military successes.
After the attack on Iranian nuclear facilities last June, Trump repeatedly claimed that the country's nuclear program was destroyed and irreversibly eliminated. However, early assessments by U.S. intelligence agencies did not confirm this. And indeed, just nine months later, the administration once again began portraying Iran as an immediate nuclear threat.
The political problem in all of this is that U.S. military success should be the administration's main trump card.
Americans have little confidence in this mission. They feel it has not been sufficiently explained to them. The list of four objectives keeps changing. And perhaps the biggest issue is the economic pessimism caused by the effective closure of the Strait of Hormuz and the resulting rise in fuel prices. Americans simply do not think the war is worth these costs.
Throughout it all, Hegseth has particularly argued that the media is not adequately reporting on the military successes of the campaign.
CNN concludes that control over Iranian skies and the destruction of its missile program do not appear as complete as portrayed.