The dramatic rescue of the F-15 weapons system officer who was shot down over Iran required the U.S. military to set up an improvised airfield deep inside the country in a mountainous region near Isfahan.
The so-called forward arming and refueling point (FARP) helped enable an elaborate mission that reportedly involved hundreds of special operations troops and other military personnel as well as dozens of aircraft.
A senior U.S. military official told the New York Times that the mission was one of the most challenging and complex in the history of U.S. special ops because of the mountainous terrain, the airman’s injuries, and the Iranian forces scrambling to find him.
Navy SEAL Team 6 commandos eventually reached the airman, who evaded capture for more than a day and even hiked up a 7,000-foot ridge line, the report said.
But just before extraction, two C-130 transports planes designed for special ops missions got stuck at the FARP, delaying their escape, according to the Times.
Additional planes had to be flown in to retrieve everyone, forcing the U.S. to destroy its own stranded C-130s to prevent them from falling into Iranian hands.
Images of wreckage from the FARP also appear to indicate that other aircraft had to be left behind and destroyed, including small helicopters, The War Zone reported.
While the mission was successful with no casualties reported so far beyond the F-15 airman’s injuries, it followed the first combat losses of U.S. aircraft in the Iran war.
In addition to the F-15 that was shot down, an A-10 that was providing close air support during search-and-rescue operations was also damaged by Iranian fire and crashed after the pilot flew outside Iranian airspace.
The losses came despite President Donald Trump’s claims that Iran’s air defenses no longer posed a threat to U.S. aircraft as he contemplates a potential ground assault to reopen the Strait of Hormuz.
“The last 48 hours offers some idea of what U.S. ground operations inside Iran could entail, in terms of Iranian capabilities, risks, and scope for achievement,” Gregory Brew, a Eurasia Group analyst focusing on oil and Iran, posted on X on Sunday.
In the event of a sustained ground mission, including a potential operation to retrieve Iran’s highly enriched uranium, setting up FARPs would likely come into play again.
They have long been part of the U.S. military’s capabilities and have been established in earlier wars. Troops also practice building them, including a Marine unit in recent days.
Last month, Marine Aviation Weapons and Tactics Squadron One hosted a FARP exercise at Marine Corps Air Station Yuma, Arizona. The seven-week event also saw Marines conduct similar FARP training near Chocolate Mountains, California, on April 1.
Separately, troops with the 31st Marine Expeditionary Unit arrived in the Middle East last weekend, and the 11th MEU is on the way, along with paratroopers with the Army’s 82nd Airborne Division.
With thousands of troops assembling in the region over the coming weeks, Trump could deploy them to seize Kharg Island, from which 90% of Iran’s oil is exported, or other small islands near the Strait of Hormuz to weaken Iran’s grip on the narrow waterway that’s critical to the global oil trade.
For now, it’s unclear if the successful rescue of the F-15 airman after a harrowing operation makes a future ground assault more or less likely.
“On the one hand, the costs from this episode (four, as many as seven aircraft) may suggest the risks to such operations are simply too great to contemplate,” Brew added. “On the other hand, the admin may perceive the successful retrieval following operations inside Iranian territory as proof that such operations are feasible.”
