The Iranians managed to damage about a dozen US warplanes at an air base in Jordan, despite the fact that the US Patriot air defense systems stationed there were operating in "machine gun" mode, CBS News reported, citing its own sources.
The attack was carried out on the night of September 8-9 against the "Muwafaq Salti" airbase. As the media outlet recalls, after an initial exchange of strikes between the US and Iran, Tehran launched attacks on American military facilities, specifically on the base in Jordan.
Sources who requested anonymity told the media outlet that one A-10 Thunderbolt II attack aircraft suffered serious damage - its wing was torn off. About eight F-15 fighters received minor damage, which was quickly repaired.
At the same time, there are no reports of casualties among American military personnel during the strike on Jordan.
Analysts from the Ukrainian portal Defense Express note that, according to official statements from Jordan, during the attack, Iran fired about 20 ballistic missiles at the air base. Judging by the videos published on the Internet, the US air defense systems fired at least 60 PAC-3 interceptor missiles to repel the attack; some sources even put the figure at 100 interceptors. That works out to an average of at least three PAC-3 missiles for every incoming ballistic missile.
Jordanian officials claim that air defenses intercepted 18 of the 20 Iranian missiles, while the other two - according to the official version - did not reach their targets.
Analysts at Defense Express suggest that a significant portion of the damage was likely caused in the aircraft's parking area. At the same time, the nature of the damage to the F-15s - which were quickly returned to service - raises questions about what exactly hit the parking area.
"If the F-15s could have been repaired so quickly, the damage would have been very minor, which is not particularly reminiscent of the effects of a ballistic missile strike. "It is therefore possible that the parking area was hit by debris from a downed missile or by submunitions from a ballistic missile with a cluster warhead - the use of which was clearly visible in the published videos," experts note.