US-Iran war: New images reveal damage to US military bases
Abdullateef Fowewe
The Trump administration is continuing to downplay the scale of the U.S.–Iran war even as newly obtained images show extensive damage to American military assets, including aircraft and base infrastructure across the Middle East.
ABC News published photos and video footage—some from a “Good Morning America” segment—showing wreckage of U.S. planes with American markings in desert terrain, destroyed facilities, and Pentagon officials acknowledging repeated Iranian drone and missile strikes on bases.
Service members who shared the images say the extent of the destruction has not been fully communicated to the American public.
The visuals include what appears to be a direct hit on a Boeing E‑3 Sentry radar aircraft at Prince Sultan Air Base in Saudi Arabia, with its tail section separated from the fuselage, as well as damaged barracks, burned trailers, and destroyed vehicles at camps in Kuwait.
A Defense Department inspector general report released this week provides the first formal accounting of U.S. losses in the conflict, stating that Iranian strikes “damaged and destroyed hundreds of buildings and structures at U.S. bases in Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar, UAE, Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Oman, and Jordan.”
The report also confirms that dozens of U.S. manned and unmanned aircraft have been destroyed or damaged, including fighters, attack aircraft, helicopters, and large numbers of drones.
Equipment losses from the war are estimated at up to $3.7 billion, with nearly 60 aircraft damaged or destroyed, according to the inspector general’s findings and a related Congressional Research Service tally.
Despite the mounting evidence of damage and casualties, President Donald Trump has repeatedly minimized the war, at one point calling it “small potatoes” and suggesting “there’s no fighting,” even as the conflict has driven up energy prices and raised fears of wider regional involvement.
The administration has also sought to downplay related tensions, such as reports that Chinese entities supplied Iran with satellite imagery before an attack that killed U.S. troops in Jordan earlier in the year.
The 2026 conflict, which escalated in the spring around the Strait of Hormuz, has seen repeated U.S. airstrikes on Iranian targets and retaliatory Iranian missile and drone campaigns, including fresh strikes in early September.
