The military cost of the Iran war for the United States is more than it seems

WashingtonIranian attacks have damaged or destroyed military equipment and infrastructure at U.S. bases in the Middle East, from communications and air defense equipment to radars, hangars, and fuel depots. According to analyses of satellite imagery by various U.S. media outlets, the destruction is far greater than Washington has publicly admitted.

"We are completely annihilating their navy," stated White House spokesperson Karoline Leavitt in an interview with Fox News, one of many occasions on which the Trump administration boasted of having practically finished off the Iranian military. But the damage observed at U.S. facilities shows that Tehran's attacks have been more significant than the Pentagon acknowledges, and that, collectively, they would have caused damage valued in millions of dollars to the attacked countries, including damage to state-of-the-art air defense systems, refueling tankers, and radars.

The New York Times noted in the early weeks of the war that fourteen U.S. military facilities had been attacked. NBC reported on the bombing of an Iranian fighter jet against a U.S. base in Kuwait, marking the first time in years that an enemy aircraft had impacted a U.S. base. Subsequently, CNN published that the damage reached sixteen military facilities, meaning the majority of U.S. positions in the region.

The Washington Post went further and documented that 217 structures and 11 pieces of equipment have been damaged or destroyed at 15 U.S. military facilities in the region. This week, the BBC has raised this figure and reported that Iran has damaged 20 U.S. military facilities since the beginning of the war, according to an analysis based on satellite imagery it has been able to verify.

Censorship of satellites

This type of analysis is usually difficult to perform because the United States has asked Planet and Vantor, the two main satellite image providers, to restrict images of a large part of the Middle East. The companies have acceded to the requests of their main client, arguing that they do not want them to be used to attack soldiers and civilians of NATO partners.

For this reason, these investigations have resorted to other image providers, such as the European satellite Copernicus, as well as images published by agencies linked to Iran, which they have compared with older ones from Planet. According to CNN, this is the first time that the United States is fighting an enemy that has satellites capable of capturing high-resolution images almost as detailed as their own.

Experts assure that the photographs suggest that the US military has underestimated Iran's ability to attack targets, has not adapted sufficiently to modern drone warfare, and has left bases unprotected. In particular, some point out that the United States has been complacent because they do not remove particularly expensive equipment from the reach of Iranian drones and missiles.

State-of-the-art equipment

Furthermore, analyses show that Iran has focused on destroying state-of-the-art equipment and aircraft worth billions of dollars, as well as sophisticated radar systems, crucial for air defense and difficult to replace. One example is the three anti-missile battery systems it has destroyed at the Al-Ruwais and Al-Sader bases in the Emirates, and at another base in Jordan. The United States only has eight batteries of this type; each costs $1 billion, requires a hundred people to operate, and the missiles it fires cost over $12 million per launch. In this regard, experts emphasize that these batteries are part of a very complex defensive network that cannot be easily replaced.

The images also show that Iran has destroyed fuel storage bunkers, aircraft hangars, and troop barracks at the Ali Al-Salem and Arifjan bases in Kuwait, and has severely affected American refueling and surveillance tanker aircraft at Prince Sultan Air Base in Saudi Arabia. Each of these aircraft can cost $700 million.

According to the BBC, at least 42 aircraft – including F-15 and F-35 fighters, 24 MQ-9 Reaper drones, and an A-10 attack aircraft – have been destroyed or damaged since February. In contrast, Iran is said to have used cheaper equipment in its attacks, such as drones or easily replaceable missiles.

Regarding human losses, seven soldiers and Department of Defense employees have died in attacks on American facilities in the region – six in Kuwait and one in Saudi Arabia – and over 400 people have been injured, at least as of the end of April. In some cases, the United States has been forced to evacuate most of the personnel from its bases in the region and relocate them to areas outside Iran's reach. Currently, the United States has 50,000 soldiers deployed throughout the Middle East, most of them on military bases, 10,000 more than when the war began.