Iran says $700 million US surveillance aircraft destroyed at Saudi base

Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps has said it destroyed a US E-3 AWACS surveillance aircraft in Friday’s strikes on the Prince Sultan Air Base in Saudi Arabia, which injured 12 US military personnel.

The base, situated about 60 miles southeast of the Saudi capital Riyadh, is run by the Saudi air force but is frequently used by American forces.

On Friday, the spokesperson for Iran’s central military headquarters, Ebrahim Zolfaghari, announced the initial attack.

A subsequent statement carried by Fars News Agency provided additional details, stating that the operation involved a large barrage of both ballistic missiles and drones, resulting in the “complete destruction” of the airborne warning and control system aircraft.

Fars said the incident highlighted the "asymmetric effectiveness in modern warfare," in which a $20,000 Shahed-136 drone, with an operational range of 2,500 kilometres and a 15-hour flight endurance, was able to bypass the radar’s defence systems.

US and Arab officials, speaking anonymously to The Wall Street Journal, confirmed that an E-3 Sentry was among the aircraft damaged in the attack.

Photos circulating through US military channels show the E-3 Sentry aircraft essentially split in two, with multiple refuelling aircraft also sustaining heavy damage at the same base.

The aircraft, estimated to cost upwards of $700 million, has a distinctive rotating radar mounted on its fuselage and is designed to manage incoming threats, tracking drones, missiles and aircraft within a range of more than 250 miles.

It is also tasked with supporting air-to-ground operations by providing real-time information to friendly ground forces.

Analysts point to the aircraft’s role as critical in delivering a real-time operational picture of threats, as well as the difficulty of replacing it due to the US Air Force’s limited inventory.

US Central Command has not publicly commented on the incident, only acknowledging that 12 service members were injured in Friday’s strike.

Prince Sultan Air Base had previously come under attack on 13 March, when five KC-135 refuelling aircraft were damaged, according to a US official cited by the Wall Street Journal.

Over the first month of the war, Iran has damaged or destroyed multiple radar systems, elements of a THAAD missile defence system, and Reaper drones in a series of attacks across American bases in the Gulf, as it seeks to counter and degrade the US war effort in the region.