Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi says the real number of American military aircraft downed by Iran is “far higher” than reported by the US.
Araghchi made the remark in a post on his X account on Thursday, citing figures from the US Congressional Research Service as he questioned Washington’s account of losses at its military bases.
He said the Congressional Research Service had acknowledged in May that Iran’s armed forces had downed 42 American military aircraft.
However, the figure has now increased to 81, he added.
“Real toll is far higher,” he wrote.
As evidence of a cover-up, the top Iranian diplomat pointed to CENTCOM’s refusal to allow a sitting US senator to inspect bases that it claims are undamaged, without providing further details.
“You can fool all the people some of the time...,” Araghchi added, referring to a famous quote by Abraham Lincoln: "You can fool all the people some of the time, and some of the people all the time, but you cannot fool all the people all the time."
A Congressional Research Service (CRS) report on Monday says the United States has lost or sustained damage to at least 81 military aircraft and drones during Trump’s war on Iran, with the total replacement cost estimated at $1.9 billion to $3.3 billion.
The tally covers manned aircraft, helicopters and unmanned systems and includes combat losses, alleged accidents and aircraft damaged or destroyed on the ground.
MQ-9 Reaper drones account for more than half the total. The list also includes high-value platforms such as an F-35A fighter jet and an E-3 Sentry, as well as up to 12 F-15E Strike Eagles, seven KC-135 tankers and seven helicopters.
Meanwhile, CNN has put the total cost of the war at more than $45 billion, noting that the “figure doesn’t include damage to infrastructure at US bases in the region, including those where some of the aircraft losses happened.”
This came as in recent months the Pentagon has been facing accusations of underreporting casualties among American forces in West Asia.
The administration of President Donald Trump — which calls itself the “most transparent administration in history” — is facing scrutiny over its lack of transparency after a report cited US officials as saying that more American troops have died in the 40-day war against Iran than the Pentagon has disclosed.
Iran has experienced two major rounds of unprovoked US-Israeli military aggression over the past Iranian year (March 2025-March 2026).
The first was a 12-day war in June 2025, during which more than 1,000 people were killed in Iran, including women and children, according to Iranian official figures.
The second round began on February 28, when joint US-Israeli strikes targeted locations across Iran.
The war continued for around 40 days before a ceasefire was reached in April. Iranian health authorities reported that more than 3,500 people were killed during the aggression, including hundreds of women and children.
During both wars, Iranian armed forces responded with forceful retaliatory strikes against the attacking forces, while maintaining military pressure that contributed to the eventual ceasefire.