{"id":27220,"date":"2026-04-04T08:32:55","date_gmt":"2026-04-04T08:32:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/youskill.us\/?p=27220"},"modified":"2026-04-04T08:32:55","modified_gmt":"2026-04-04T08:32:55","slug":"downed-jets-puncture-trumps-and-hegseths-claims-of-air-invulnerability","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/youskill.us\/?p=27220","title":{"rendered":"Downed jets puncture Trump\u2019s and Hegseth\u2019s claims of air invulnerability"},"content":{"rendered":"

An\u00a0Iran war<\/a>\u00a0that was already proving quite unpopular with the American people has entered a new, more problematic phase. That comes with the news that a\u00a0US fighter jet was shot down<\/a>\u00a0over Iran.<\/p>\n

There remains a lot we don\u2019t know, including the status of the two crew members. While CNN has reported one of them has been rescued and is receiving medical treatment, we don\u2019t know the fate of the other.<\/p>\n

And that was followed by news that Iran hit\u00a0a second US combat aircraft<\/a>\u00a0on Friday. The pilot was able to navigate the plane out of Iranian territory before ejecting from the aircraft and was subsequently rescued, a US official told CNN.<\/p>\n

Neither of these incidents means Iran is suddenly on anything close to an equal footing militarily. And there have thus far been limited American casualties, including no known deaths in the last three weeks.<\/p>\n

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But in a conflict in which military dominance is the US\u2019 chief advantage, this episode underscores the perils of asymmetric warfare, the costs of which the American public already <\/span>isn\u2019t buying<\/a>.<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

These events also puncture the Trump administration\u2019s claims about its complete dominance of the skies over Iran \u2014 along with the veneer of impenetrability it has attempted to construct over the past month.<\/p>\n

Those claims had already been contradicted in a number of cases. But this is a case in point.<\/p>\n

President Donald Trump and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth have suggested the United States and Israel had something amounting to free rein to fly over Iran. They cast Tehran as having no ability to counteract that.<\/p>\n

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At a March 4 briefing \u2014 nearly a full month ago \u2014 Hegseth said that such dominance was just around the corner.<\/p>\n

\u201cStarting last night, and to be completed in a few days in under a week, the two most powerful air forces in the world will have complete control of Iranian skies,\u201d Hegseth said. He called it \u201cuncontested airspace.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd Iran will be able to do nothing about it,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

Trump has also played up this air dominance over the past two weeks.<\/p>\n

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\u201cAnd we literally have planes flying over Tehran and other parts of their country; they can\u2019t do a thing about it,\u201d he said on March 24. He added that the United States could strike a power plant, and \u201cthey can\u2019t do a thing about it.\u201d<\/p>\n

The president has said for weeks that Iran had \u201cno navy,\u201d \u201cno military,\u201d \u201cno air force\u201d and \u201cno anti-aircraft systems.\u201d In a White House address Wednesday night, he said he could hit Iran\u2019s oil facilities, \u201cand there\u2019s not a thing they could do about it.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey have no anti-aircraft equipment. Their radar is 100% annihilated,\u201d Trump said. \u201cWe are unstoppable as a military force.\u201d<\/p>\n

Again, these are two downed planes out of thousands.<\/p>\n

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The administration has occasionally emphasized that there would be setbacks, including losses of life. And Hegseth in the same March 4 briefing acknowledged situations in which \u201ca few drones get through or tragic things happen.\u201d<\/p>\n

But the administration\u2019s claims about its military dominance in the skies have been absolutist, with phrases like \u201ccomplete control\u201d and \u201cuncontested airspace,\u201d even casting Iran as not even having the weaponry necessary to respond.<\/p>\n

And it\u2019s merely the latest example of Trump and those around him apparently exaggerating military success.<\/p>\n

After the strikes on Iran\u2019s nuclear facilities last June, Trump repeatedly said the country\u2019s nuclear program\u00a0had been \u201cobliterated\u201d and cast it as irretrievable<\/a>. Except that\u2019s not what an early US intelligence assessment showed. And sure enough, just nine months later, the administration again suddenly pitched Iran as an imminent nuclear threat.<\/p>\n

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Shortly after the war began, Trump\u00a0falsely blamed Iran<\/a>\u00a0for a strike on an elementary school that we later learned was likely struck by the United States, according to a preliminary investigation and other evidence.<\/p>\n

And just a day ago, CNN reported that Trump\u2019s claims about the destruction of Iran\u2019s missile launchers had been greatly exaggerated \u2014 and that the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps\u00a0still retains about half of its capabilities<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The political problem with all of this is that the US military success is supposed to be the main thing that the administration has going for it.<\/p>\n

Americans have little faith in the mission. They don\u2019t think it\u2019s been explained. The\u00a0list of four objectives has constantly shifted<\/a>. And perhaps the biggest problem is economic pessimism resulting from the effective closure of the Strait of Hormuz and the subsequent rising gas prices. Americans just\u00a0don\u2019t think the war is worth the costs<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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Through it all, Hegseth in particular has argued that the media has given short shrift to the military success of the campaign.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is what the fake news misses,\u201d he said in that same March 4 briefing. \u201cWe\u2019ve taken control of Iran\u2019s airspace and waterways without boots on the ground.\u201d<\/p>\n

A month later, the most crucial waterway remains a very important exception. And the control of Iran\u2019s airspace and the demise of its missile launching program aren\u2019t looking as complete as advertised.<\/p>\n

This story has been updated with additional developments.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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