This handout photo provided by Iran's Revolutionary Guard Corps reportedly shows the wreckage of crashed aircraft in central Iran. Photo: screenshot

The search and rescue of the American pilots from an F-15E fighter jet that was shot down over southern Iran, as well as how these actions will affect the war in Iran, have captivated the world’s attention over the past newly two days and continue to do so now.

Both crew members from a downed F-15E in Iran have been recovered after a "heavy firefight," US officials told media on Sunday, with President Donald Trump confirming the development on his Truth Social platform, according to Xinhua News Agency. The aircraft had been downed earlier on April 3 in southern Iran. One crew member was recovered earlier, while both US and Iranian forces had been searching for the second, Xinhua reported.

The second US crew member who went missing was rescued by US forces early Sunday morning local time, media reported. Regarding the rescue operation, US President Donald Trump confirmed on Truth Social, “at my direction, the US Military sent dozens of aircraft, armed with the most lethal weapons in the World, to retrieve him.” 

As US forces converged on the downed airman, a firefight erupted, a former senior military official briefed on the operation said. In the end, the US extracted the officer in an operation that involved hundreds of special operations troops, News York Times reported.

Reports quoted sources as saying the second airman was pulled from Iran. Trump wrote in his post that the service member had "sustained injuries, but he will be just fine."

The New York Times reported that “rescue planes flew the injured airman to Kuwait for medical treatment.” And Fox News quoted a source as reporting that the airman’s injuries are believed to be serious. He remains in the region for medical treatment, suggesting that his condition has not yet stabilized enough for long-distance evacuation.

On the other side, Iran's armed forces announced Sunday they shot down three US aircraft, a C-130 military transport plane and two Black Hawk helicopters, during the American operation to rescue the airman near Isfahan. Tehran declared the US mission a failure, and accused the US of fabricating a successful rescue to cover up what it called a "heavy defeat," Turkiye Today reported.

The spokesperson of Khatam al-Anbiya Central Headquarters, Iran's unified military command, said "enemy flying objects were destroyed" in a joint operation involving the IRGC's aerospace and ground forces, Basij, the army, and police commandos.

“Following desperate US moves to rescue the pilot of the downed fighter jet and the entry of flying objects to the country’s central parts, the enemy’s flying objects were destroyed and the US once again suffered a humiliating defeat during a joint operation,” the IRGC’s Public relations Department said on Sunday, according to Iran’s Press TV. 

Before that, Iranian Parliament Speaker Mohammad-Bagher Ghalibaf wrote on social media X that “After defeating Iran 37 times in a row,” the war has been downgraded from “regime change” to finding the pilot.

US media reports present a different story.

The New York Times reported that “the operation involved landing multiple transport aircraft inside enemy territory. Two of the aircraft (likely MC-130Js) got stuck at the forward airfield and three more aircraft had to come and pick up the US forces now stranded there. The aircraft were demolished in place in order for them not to fall into enemy hands.”

A US official told NBC News that the second crew member's rescue was made possible with the help of the CIA’s subterfuge. The intelligence agency first launched a deception campaign in Iran, claiming US forces had already found the airman alive and were moving him on the ground to remove him from the country, the official said.

“While the Iranians were confused and uncertain of what was happening,” the CIA searched and found the American in a mountain crevice, the official said in a statement. 

While US media ranging from Fox News to the New York Post have been calling the mission successful and daring, Chinese experts point out that victories come in different forms. Some are clean, decisive, and undisputed; others are messy and costly. In this rescue operation, the US saved its airman, Iran highlighted the heavy losses inflicted on American aircraft – For the US, this was merely a passing grade.

They also stressed that with multiple US aircraft already damaged or shot down in the Iran conflict, this incident is unlikely to alter the overall trajectory of the war, as Washington continues to double down in an effort to recoup its sunk costs – and that is not an ideal solution for the US.

The F-15E Strike Eagle was the first American warplane that has gone down inside Iran in the five-week war. It was soon reportedly followed by an A-10 and possibly two Black Hawk helicopters, adding to the growing tally of American aircraft losses. 

According to reports, at the start of the Iran war, three US F-15s were mistakenly shot down by Kuwaiti air defenses in what the US described as "an apparent friendly fire incident." On March 12, a US KC-135 refueling aircraft crashed in western Iraq, killing all six crew members. Iran has also shot down a number of MQ-9 Reaper drones and destroyed or damaged support aircraft on the ground at US bases in the Gulf region, including an E-3 Sentry. On March 19, for instance, a US F-35 stealth fighter jet made an emergency landing at a base in the Middle East after flying a combat mission over Iran. Reports indicated it was damaged by Iranian fire. Last week, video footage circulating online appeared to show a US Navy F/A-18 Super Hornet narrowly avoiding being shot down by an Iranian surface-to-air missile.

The Wall Street Journal commented on Friday, Iran’s downing of US warplanes is “the most striking evidence yet that, despite enormous military losses, Tehran can still significantly raise the cost of continuing the conflict for the US and Israel.”

The view is echoed by CNN, which wrote that these events puncture the US administration’s claims “about its complete dominance of the skies over Iran – along with the veneer of impenetrability it has attempted to construct over the past month.”
 
The point made in the WSJ and CNN reports is the decline in the US military’s strategic deterrence, Wang Qiang, a Chinese scholar of national security strategy studies, told Global Times on Sunday. 

For Tehran, surviving the heavy blows without regime collapse or a collapse in public morale can already be counted as a strategic victory. For the US, American military power is struggling to produce meaningful strategic outcomes. This is the most awkward situation the US faces now, Wang added.

It appears that the US has made significant efforts to rescue the pilot, because if Iran captures the airman, it would be a bad look for the US, however, no matter which side finds the pilot, the US will very likely proceed with its planned ground operations, Shen Yi, a professor at the Department of International Politics at Fudan University, told the Global Times on Sunday.

According to Shen, Washington shows no signs of pulling out from the war. On the contrary, it is intensifying military deployments around Iran. Having sunk massive costs into the conflict, the White House is determined to push on and recoup its losses. After all, the US had promised a decisive victory. Instead, the strikes turned Iran more united against the US, and now Tehran's control of the Strait of Hormuz complicates US’ exit strategy from the Iran war. 

Washington may still launch ground operations, although for the US, it is far from an ideal solution, Shen said, adding that the ideal solution is the Five-Point Initiative of China and Pakistan for Restoring Peace and Stability in the Gulf and Middle East Region.