Iran's "Totally Destroyed" Military Downed a U.S. Apache Helicopter

A Boeing AH-64 Apache (Wikimedia Commons)

A U.S. Army AH-64 Apache helicopter was brought down near the Strait of Hormuz overnight by an Iranian Shahed drone, according to CNN, citing two U.S. officials and a separate source familiar with the incident. Both crew members were rescued by an uncrewed drone boat, the first such rescue operation in U.S. military history.

Iran’s one-way Shahed drones are known to fly low and slow, a feature that makes them more able to evade air defenses than ballistic missiles.

The regime in Washington has a different account of Iranian military capacity. In a March 14 Truth Social post, Trump declared the U.S. had “beaten and completely decimated Iran, both militarily, economically, and in every other way.” The following day he told NBC News Iran had been “defeated militarily.” A day after that, he told a Kennedy Center board meeting that Iran’s military had been “literally obliterated. The air force is gone. The navy is gone.”

As recently as last week, Trump repeated the claim on Meet the Press: “Their navy is gone. Their air force is gone. Their anti-aircraft is gone. In three months, I’ve demolished the navy, the air force, anti-aircraft. They have no radar. They have nothing.”

The Shahed that hit Monday’s Apache didn’t get that memo, nor the ballistic missiles that targeted Israel this week, or the missiles and drones that aimed towards U.S. bases every time the USA broke the ceasefire agreement.

This is not the first time the gap between the triumphalist narrative and the battlefield has been documented. Less than 48 hours after Trump declared the U.S. had “beaten and completely decimated Iran” in late March, Iran shot down an F-15E fighter jet, forcing a high-risk rescue scramble deep inside Iranian territory. Iran also struck two Black Hawk helicopters and an attack jet involved in that rescue effort.

The U.S. claims the pilots were rescued. It made the same claim after the F-15E was shot down in late March, and to this day, no proof of those pilots' survival has been offered. We have no reason to treat this claim differently. With the U.S. military's record of false statements throughout this war, we cannot repeat assurances about rescued personnel in confidence until evidence is actually put in front of the public.

Analysts have said Iran prepared for this conflict specifically by hardening its drone and missile stockpiles inside mountain tunnels, anticipating U.S. strikes on surface infrastructure. The presidential declarations of total victory are propaganda statements, and not very good ones.

A military with "no radar, no navy, no air force" downed a U.S. Apache with a drone. Three months in, the only thing obliterated is the credibility of Trump’s statements.

---