American F-15E fighter jet, which was lost on the night of April 2-3, 2026 during Operation Epic Fury against Iran, "was probably struck by a Chinese-made shoulder-launched missile".
This information is reported by NBC News, relying on its own high-ranking sources.The official investigation is currently ongoing, while the name of the MANPADS itself has not been disclosed.
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The downing of the F-15E by a MANPADS means that it must have been performing a low-altitude night flight, which in itself is a sign that the United States at that time could not guarantee the suppression of Iran's air defense system as well as the destruction of surface-to-air missile systems.
From Defense Express side, we note that the Iranians are armed with Chinese-made MANPADS of the HN-5, QW-1 and QW-18 types, as well as MANPADS of their own design and production. In addition, it was reported that Beijing intended to transfer additional MANPADS to Tehran. In addition, there was information that russia has concluded a contract with Iran for the supply the Verba MANPADS.
It is worth noting that the loss of the F-15E caused even greater losses of the U.S. in aircraft during the successful search and rescue operation of two fighter pilots. Then the Americans were forced to destroy two special transport aircraft MC-130J Commando II and four helicopters MH-6 Little Bird, which were deployed at an improvised air base right in the deep Iranian rear. One A-10 Thunderbolt attack aircraft was also lost, which was shot down, but its pilot left Iranian airspace and ejected in a safe area.
In addition, as NBC News reports, "China also may have provided Iran with a long-range early-warning radar that spots stealth aircraft that are meant to evade detection". At the same time, the media writes that "it is unclear whether the radar, known as a YLC-8B, was fielded during the war." It should be noted that unconfirmed information about transfer of Chinese YLC-8B radar, which Iran could use to detect low-visibility aircraft, appeared back in February of this year, a couple of weeks before the start of the U.S. and Israeli strikes on Iran.
YLC-8B is a 3D surveillance radar operating in the UHF-band. The declared detection range of a fighter target of this radar is up to 500 km, and of a ballistic missile – up to 700 km. At the same time, this radar specializes in detecting stealth targets – it is allegedly able to detect the American F-22 Raptor supersonic stealth fighter aircraft at a distance of 350 km.
The use of the YLC-8B radar is associated with the episode of the defeat of the 5th-gen F-35 fighter jet on March 18 of this year. Then this fighter was shot down by an unknown air defense system, which, apparently, received target designation from this radar. At the same time, the fact that the YLC-8B radar was not hit at that time seems rather strange, as after all it was supposed to be the number 1 target.
Overall, these two episodes may indicate that the U.S. was unable to completely neutralize Iran's air defenses, despite its enormous superiority in all aspects. In addition, the results of the bombings themselves, despite the huge expenditure of long-range missiles, turned out to be controversial.
Defense Express reported earliwer, that U.S. wanted to deploy Dark Eagle hypersonic missiles against Iran. We also wrote that after costly losses against iran, U.S. Air Force is moving to replace the MQ-9 Reaper.
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