{"id":53608,"date":"2026-03-27T10:46:59","date_gmt":"2026-03-27T09:46:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/migflug.com\/jetflights\/?p=53608"},"modified":"2026-03-27T10:46:59","modified_gmt":"2026-03-27T09:46:59","slug":"missile-in-the-mirror-a-super-hornet-escapes-iran","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/migflug.com\/jetflights\/missile-in-the-mirror-a-super-hornet-escapes-iran\/","title":{"rendered":"Missile in the Mirror: A Super Hornet Escapes Iran"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>The video is grainy, shot from the ground near Chabahar \u2014 a port city on Iran&#8217;s remote eastern coast. A U.S. Navy F\/A-18 Super Hornet screams low overhead, its 20mm cannon blazing. Then a streak of smoke rises from below. The aircraft breaks hard left. The warhead detonates behind it. The jet flies on.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-twitter wp-block-embed-twitter\">\n  <div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<blockquote hcb-fetch-image-from=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/CENTCOM\/status\/2036869094595568037\" class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\"><p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">\ud83d\udeabFALSE: The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps announced a U.S. F\/A-18 fighter was struck over Chabahar using new advanced air defense systems.<br><br>\u2705TRUE: No U.S. fighter aircraft have been shot down by Iran. <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/I25QFjYo0l\">pic.twitter.com\/I25QFjYo0l<\/a><\/p>&mdash; U.S. Central Command (@CENTCOM) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/CENTCOM\/status\/2036869094595568037?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">March 25, 2026<\/a><\/blockquote><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script>\n  <\/div>\n<\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>For several tense hours on March 25, 2026, the world debated whether the United States had just lost a fighter jet over Iran. The answer was no \u2014 but the close call was real, and the video proved it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Iran Claimed a Kill. CENTCOM Said Otherwise.<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps moved fast. Before the smoke had cleared, IRGC state media announced that the F\/A-18 had been &#8220;accurately hit&#8221; using new advanced air defense systems and had subsequently crashed into the Indian Ocean. The claim went viral across Middle Eastern media within minutes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>U.S. Central Command fired back just as quickly. &#8220;No U.S. fighter aircraft have been shot down by Iran,&#8221; CENTCOM posted on X \u2014 directly contradicting the IRGC account. Open-source analysts at GeoConfirmed pinned the footage to coordinates in Chabahar&#8217;s port district and walked through it frame by frame: the missile detonated in the jet&#8217;s wake. The Super Hornet kept flying.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The IRGC&#8217;s kill claim was false. But the underlying event \u2014 an Iranian man-portable surface-to-air missile coming within metres of a U.S. Navy fighter \u2014 was not.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">The Longest Reach of Operation Epic Fury<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Chabahar sits at the far eastern edge of Iran, almost on the Pakistani border. The fact that U.S. aircraft are conducting low-level strafing runs there \u2014 well outside the Persian Gulf \u2014 shows just how broadly Operation Epic Fury has extended American air power across Iranian territory.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>It also reveals a threat the Pentagon has been quieter about: Iranian MANPADS. These are not the sophisticated S-300 batteries that U.S. planners spent years preparing to suppress. They are small, mobile, shoulder-fired weapons \u2014 the kind a single IRGC soldier can carry into a port, a rooftop, or a fishing village. No radar warning. No electronic countermeasure will reliably detect them before the trigger is pulled.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The Super Hornet pilot appears to have reacted instinctively \u2014 or perhaps caught the missile&#8217;s launch signature just in time. Either way, it was very close.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">The Threat Is Not Gone<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Iran&#8217;s large fixed air defense networks have taken severe damage since Epic Fury began. But this incident is proof that the threat has not been erased. MANPADS are nearly impossible to pre-empt. They are everywhere. And the men holding them are still watching the sky.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Secretary of State Marco Rubio, speaking the same day, described &#8220;growing energy&#8221; in diplomatic channels and hinted at progress. Until a deal is struck, U.S. pilots are flying \u2014 and ducking.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Sources: The War Zone; U.S. Central Command; GeoConfirmed; Bellingcat<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The video is grainy, shot from the ground near Chabahar \u2014 a port city on Iran&#8217;s remote eastern coast. A U.S. Navy F\/A-18 Super Hornet screams low overhead, its 20mm cannon blazing. Then a streak of smoke rises from below. The aircraft breaks hard left. The warhead detonates behind it. The jet flies on. For [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":53616,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","editor_notices":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[664,670],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-53608","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-military-aviation","category-news"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.2 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Missile in the Mirror: A Super Hornet Escapes Iran | MiGFlug.com Blog<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/migflug.com\/jetflights\/missile-in-the-mirror-a-super-hornet-escapes-iran\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Missile in the Mirror: A Super Hornet Escapes Iran | MiGFlug.com Blog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The video is grainy, shot from the ground near Chabahar \u2014 a port city on Iran&#8217;s remote eastern coast. 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