00:00As the U.S. and Israel entered the third day of their joint assault on Iran
00:04in what the Pentagon has dubbed Operation Epic Fury,
00:07U.S. military personnel had a brush with death
00:10after three U.S. F-15E fighter jets were mistakenly shot down by Kuwaiti air defenses in Al-Jurab.
00:17Shocking video posted on X captured the startling moment the jets plummeted to the ground,
00:22forcing U.S. pilots to eject and deploy their emergency parachutes.
00:27According to the American military's Central Command,
00:30the three U.S. jets were erroneously shot down shortly after an apparent Iranian drone barrage
00:34struck the U.S. Embassy compound in Kuwait City.
00:38CENTCOM said all six crew members on board the jets were able to eject safely and are in stable condition.
00:44According to the U.S. Air Force, the jets, known as F-15E Strike Eagles,
00:48are a dual-role fighter plane capable of executing both air-to-air and air-to-ground combat missions.
00:54Each F-15E jet has two crew members, a pilot and a weapons systems officer,
01:00who have the ability to fly at low altitude and any type of weather.
01:03The F-15E is the improved version of its predecessor jets, F-15A through D,
01:09which were developed throughout the 1970s.
01:11Unlike previous models of the F-15, which were specifically built for air-to-air combat missions,
01:16the E version can detect and destroy enemy ground positions from long distances.
01:21The $31.1 million F-15E jet, which was originally made by McDonnell Douglas,
01:27which later merged under Boeing, first flew off the production line in 1988
01:31and debuted in 1991 during Operation Desert Storm.
01:36The jets have been used in several military operations since and are rarely shot down, according to Forbes.
01:42The outlet said in 2009, Taliban forces claimed to have downed a U.S. F-15E, killing both crew members.
01:49The U.S. Air Force denied the claim, writing in a report that the crash was due to the weapons
01:54system officer's
01:55quote, incorrect assessment of a training target's elevation during a training flight.
02:00An F-15E also crashed in 2011 during combat missions in Libya.
02:04A report said the pilot quote, exceeded the critical angle of attack during an Air Force-approved combat maneuver.
02:10Both crew members survived the crash.
02:13According to Odin, the U.S. military's OE Data Integration Network, a total of 236 F-15Es were built through
02:202001.
02:22Boeing also tailored builds of the F-15E for U.S. allies like Israel, South Korea, and Japan.
02:28According to Forbes, the U.S. Air Force has approximately 218 F-15E strike eagles in its current inventory.
02:35Boeing has also started producing an upgraded version of the jet, known as the F-15EX Eagle IIs, which can
02:42carry a higher payload.
02:44According to Air and Space Forces magazine in July, two F-15EXs were delivered to Kadena Air Base in Japan
02:51for quote, familiarization training.
02:54According to reporting from the National Interest, the F-15EX costs a whopping $94 million per aircraft.
03:01But the F-15Es are not alone in the U.S.'s assault on Iran.
03:06Air and Space Forces magazine reports the Air Force is also using F-35 Lightning IIs, F-22 Raptors, F
03:13-16 Fighting Falcons, B-2 Spirits, A-10 Thunderbolt IIs, and many more to cripple the Iranian regime.
03:21K-3
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