The U.S. military has denied reports that an Air Force F-15E Strike Eagle was shot down or crashed during operations over Iran, pushing back against rumors that spread quickly online as the air war deepens. U.S. Central Command said claims circulating on social media about the loss of a Strike Eagle inside Iran were “baseless and not true,” and a CENTCOM spokesperson told The War Zone that no U.S. aircraft had been downed other than three F-15Es lost earlier in a separate incident in Kuwait.

The denial followed a now-deleted post from the widely followed X account @sentdefender, which had claimed that an F-15E went down during a strike mission over southwestern Iran and that its crew was later rescued in a joint U.S.-Israeli combat search-and-rescue operation. After the report gained traction, the account removed the post while saying it still had confidence in its sourcing, even though the story had been publicly denied by CENTCOM.

The episode highlights the growing role of information warfare alongside the military campaign itself. The War Zone noted that CENTCOM has repeatedly used social media to counter what it says are false Iranian claims, including allegations that Tehran had sunk a U.S. destroyer, killed 100 Marines, forced an American withdrawal, or shot down additional aircraft. The command dismissed those claims in blunt terms, calling them “all lies.”

Even so, the article argues that the risk to U.S. aircraft is rising as American and Israeli operations expand deeper into Iranian territory. According to updates cited in the piece, U.S. bombers struck nearly 200 targets in Iran over a 72-hour period, including deeply buried missile facilities, while Iranian air defenses and naval assets also came under attack. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth later reiterated that reports of an F-15 loss over Iran were false.

So while there is no confirmed evidence that an F-15E was lost over Iran, the controversy reflects the fog of war surrounding a fast-moving and increasingly dangerous conflict.