The U.S. military has finished its damage assessment of Iran’s ballistic missile attacks on two U.S. bases on Tuesday and the results, according to one official, are “pretty skimpy.”
A U.S. military source, speaking to the Washington Examiner, said the total damage assessment from the missiles is “one rescue helo and nine canvas shelters.”
That total damage assessment comes just days after President Donald Trump announced no U.S. or Iraqi personnel were killed in the attack. Trump did say there was some “minimal damage” at the U.S. military bases Iran attacked.
“And that’s it. For them, it was a pretty skimpy outcome,” the official said of Iran’s missile attack.
An unnamed European officer said ground tools, such as rakes and shovels, might also have been destroyed in the attack.
The helicopter in question was a Sikorsky HH-60 Pave Hawk, a search and rescue variant of the UH-60 Black Hawk. According to one civilian military contractor who spoke to the Washington Examiner, the helicopter had an estimated cost of about $40 million.
“Too bad it wasn’t airborne when the hit came in,” the European officer said. “We’d still have the helicopter. I am worried about the tents, to be honest. A tent is very useful when you have to stay outside. Will people now have to double up in the cold?”
Photos sent to popular Facebook page Air Force amn/nco/snco on Thursday show what appears to be the damage to tents on the base.
Iran reportedly fired at least 15 missiles at the al-Assad base and another base in Iraqi Kurdistan city of Erbil.
The missile attacks appear to have fulfilled Iran’s threats of “severe revenge” against the U.S. strike that killed Iranian Gen. Qassem Soleimani.
Vice President Mike Pence and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Mark Milley have both concluded Iran did intend to kill U.S. personnel and that, if not for early warnings and defensive precautions, some may have been wounded or killed.
Milley said the fact that the U.S. suffered no casualties had “more to do with the defensive techniques that our forces used as opposed to intent” by Iran when it fired the missiles.
Despite no evidence of damage or casualties, Iranian military officials initially claimed “at least 80 U.S. Army personnel have been killed and around 200 others wounded.”
Iranian officials also claimed the 15 missiles they fired hit 20 sensitive targets, damaging numerous drones and helicopters.
On Thursday, Brig. Gen. Amir Ali Hajizadeh, the head of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard’s Aerospace Force claimed the missiles were not aimed to kill Americans but that, “We intended to hit the enemy’s military machinery.”
Despite this claim Hajizadeh did not disavow prior Iranian claims of U.S. casualties and instead claimed “tens of people were killed or wounded.”
