Riyadh/Washington DC — Iran has destroyed one of the United States Air Force’s most prized surveillance aircraft an E-3G Sentry AWACS — in a missile and drone strike on Prince Sultan Air Base in Saudi Arabia, as photographs emerged showing the aircraft’s rear fuselage completely burned out and its radar dome detached and lying on the ground.
The attack on March 27 wounded at least 15 US service members, including five seriously, and damaged multiple KC-135 Stratotanker refuelling aircraft on the ground, according to the Associated Press, Wall Street Journal, Air and Space Forces Magazine and other outlets.
Iran fired six ballistic missiles and 29 drones at the base, located in central Saudi Arabia several hundred kilometres from Iranian territory.
The destruction of the E-3G Sentry serial number 81-0005, assigned to the 552nd Air Control Wing at Tinker Air Force Base in Oklahoma is one of the most consequential single aircraft losses of Operation Epic Fury. The strike reduces the US Air Force’s already shrinking AWACS fleet from 16 to 15 operational aircraft.
What the E-3 Sentry Does — and Why Its Loss Matters
The E-3 Sentry is not a strike aircraft. Its purpose is to organise the entire air war around it.
Flying at altitude, it carries a rotating radar dome housing the AN/APY-2 surveillance system capable of detecting aircraft and missiles hundreds of kilometres away and providing commanders with a continuous real-time picture of the battlespace. It tracks both friendly and hostile forces simultaneously, directing fighters, deconflicting airspace, and coordinating tanker sequencing for refuelling operations across a wide area.
Without AWACS, modern air operations lose coherence. The E-3 does not contribute one mission set it structures all of them.
Photographs shared on social media and verified by open-source intelligence analysts show catastrophic damage to aircraft 81-0005. The rear fuselage section has separated completely.
The radome support structure has collapsed, with the dome detached and lying displaced over the central fuselage. The tail section is visible but separated from the rest of the aircraft. Aviation analysts described the damage pattern as consistent with a direct missile strike to the critical structural area supporting the radar system.
At least five KC-135 Stratotanker refuelling aircraft were also struck on the ground, with one potentially destroyed, according to US and Arab officials cited by the Wall Street Journal.
Fleet Already at Crisis Point
The loss comes at an extremely difficult moment for the US AWACS programme.
The E-3 fleet has contracted from approximately 30 aircraft decades ago to just 16 before this strike now 15. The aircraft are Cold War-era platforms built on a Boeing 707 airframe. Some of the engines powering the fleet are no longer in production, complicating maintenance. Far fewer than the 15 remaining aircraft are available to operate at any given time due to the demands of ongoing maintenance on a fleet of this age.
The planned successor the Boeing E-7 Wedgetail is projected to cost $700 million per aircraft and faces procurement delays, budget debates and shifting Pentagon priorities that have slowed the transition. Alternative space-based surveillance systems remain years from full operational capability.
The US had deployed six E-3 Sentries to the Middle East prior to the start of the war — representing a substantial portion of the total fleet. The destruction of one of those aircraft significantly increases the burden on the remainder, accelerating wear and narrowing coverage over the Gulf battlespace.
Defence experts told The War Zone that Iranian forces appeared to have targeted the AWACS deliberately not simply to hit aircraft parked in the open, but to fracture the command and control layer that allows US airpower across the region to function as an integrated system.
Russia Gave Iran the Targeting Data — Zelensky
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said in an interview with NBC on Saturday that Russian satellites took images of Prince Sultan Air Base on March 20, March 23 and March 25 three successive passes that he said indicated a planned attack was being prepared and that those images were shared with Iran before the strike.
“We know that if they make images once, they are preparing. If they make images a second time, it’s like a simulation. The third time it means that in one or two days, they will attack,” Zelensky said.
NBC stated its briefing from Zelensky did not include direct evidence of Russia’s satellite imagery or specify how Ukraine acquired the intelligence.
Zelensky said he was “100 percent” confident Russia was providing Iran with targeting intelligence. “I think that it’s in Russia’s interest to help Iranians. And I don’t believe — I know that they share information,” he said.
Trump had previously said it was “inconsequential” if Russia was sharing information with Iran, making the remark after attending the dignified transfer of six Army reservists killed in a drone strike in Kuwait on March 1.
Tomahawk Stockpile Running Low
The strike on Prince Sultan Air Base comes as separate reporting reveals significant strain on US munitions stocks.
The US has fired more than 850 Tomahawk cruise missiles in four weeks of the war, according to officials speaking to the Washington Post. Only a few hundred Tomahawks are manufactured each year. One official told the Post the number remaining in the Middle East is “alarmingly low.”
US Central Command commander Admiral Brad Cooper said on March 25 two days before the Prince Sultan strike that Iranian missile and drone launches were down more than 90% since the start of the conflict and that the US had damaged or destroyed over two-thirds of Iran’s missile, drone and naval production facilities. Reuters reported separately on Friday that US intelligence is certain it has destroyed only around a third of Iran’s missiles, with the status of another third unclear.
Houthis Enter the War — Pakistan to Host Peace Talks
The day after the Prince Sultan strike, Yemen’s Houthi rebels launched two missiles toward Israel, with the Israeli military announcing it had intercepted both. Houthi spokesman Brigadier General Yahya Saree announced the launches were aimed at “sensitive Israeli military sites” in southern Israel.
The 31st Marine Expeditionary Unit — approximately 3,500 sailors and Marines — arrived in the Middle East on Saturday, as reported by NPR.
Pakistan announced it will host foreign ministers from Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Egypt for two days of talks beginning Monday as part of a broader diplomatic effort aimed at de-escalating the conflict. Pakistan’s foreign minister has said his country is relaying messages between Washington and Tehran as peace efforts continue.
Trump extended his Strait of Hormuz ultimatum by 10 days to April 6, citing Iran’s request for additional time and describing ongoing talks as going “very well” — despite Iran’s continued public denial that any negotiations are taking place.
For the latest on the Iran conflict and Operation Epic Fury, visit M10News.com.
This is a developing story. Updates will follow as more facts are confirmed.
