{"id":325792,"date":"2026-04-07T06:04:08","date_gmt":"2026-04-07T06:04:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/?p=325792"},"modified":"2026-04-08T07:09:49","modified_gmt":"2026-04-08T07:09:49","slug":"iran-used-lethal-russian-missiles-to-down-us-fighter-jet-intelligence-sources-say-after-quietly-making-450m-deal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/?p=325792","title":{"rendered":"Iran \u2018used lethal Russian missiles\u2019 to down US fighter jet, intelligence sources say after quietly making \u00a3450m deal"},"content":{"rendered":"

Katie Davies, Martin Arostegui \u2013 The Sun April 5, 2026<\/strong><\/h1>\n

IRAN likely used lethal Russian shoulder-fired missiles to shoot down a US fighter jet, intelligence sources told The Sun.<\/p>\n

The regime quietly made a \u00a3450m deal with Moscow<\/a> to buy 500 Verba launchers with 2,500 9M336 missiles as Donald Trump<\/a> built an armada in the region.<\/p>\n

At least some were delivered in January, it is understood.<\/p>\n

Intelligence analysts, who asked to remain anonymous, claimed a \u00a360m US F-15 Eagle jet downed on Friday was hit by 9K333 Verba Man Portable air defence systems (MANPADs) obtained from Russia in a planned ambush.<\/p>\n

The deadly missiles are effective against aircraft, helicopters and unmanned aerial vehicles flying at low altitudes.<\/p>\n

They have an altitude range of around 5km, guided by a\u00a0three-channel infrared seeker designed to improve resistance and reduce vulnerability to heat decoys and other countermeasures of conventional fighter aircraft.<\/p>\n

\n
\"\"<\/a>

Click to enlarge<\/p><\/div>\n

In propaganda videos intended to scare the West, the IRGC claimed to have shot down the F-15 Eagle and an A-10 Warthog\u00a0with a \u201cnew domestically produced air defence system\u201d.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Iran<\/a>\u2019s long-range S-300 air defences that could\u00a0threaten the strategic bombers obliterating underground command bunkers, missile factories and nuclear sites, were taken out by US Tomahawk missiles, F-35 and F-22 Stealth fighters in the opening days of the war.<\/p>\n

US Secretary of War Pete Hegseth\u00a0claimed that \u201ctotal air dominance\u201d had been achieved in a Pentagon briefing last week.<\/p>\n

But\u00a0recently acquired shorter-range\u00a0 MANPADs can threaten\u00a0fighter aircraft increasingly conducting low-altitude strikes\u00a0against mobile missile launchers, troop convoys, and other\u00a0\u201ctargets of opportunity\u201d.<\/p>\n

It comes as Trump today confirmed the second US service member from the downed fighter had been rescued<\/a> in a remote mountain region.<\/p>\n

The two-man plane \u2013 normally based at RAF Lakenheath, Suffolk \u2013 was hit on Friday during a sortie over Kohgiluyeh and Boyer-Ahmad province in southern Iran.<\/p>\n

Elite units quickly rescued the pilot \u2013 but they faced a race against the clock to save the second crew member<\/a>, a colonel.<\/p>\n

Both had ejected into enemy territory before the plane hit the ground and exploded.<\/p>\n

Continues …<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Iran and Russia agreed a deal on man-portable anti-aircraft missiles early in 2026. It is believed that some were delivered before the outbreak of was with Israel and the U.S. Were these used to down the US F-15 jet, and the planes and choppers involved in the pilot\u2019s rescue?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":39262,"featured_media":325794,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[58,51],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-325792","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-Current_Affairs","category-Iran"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/325792","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/39262"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=325792"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/325792\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":325818,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/325792\/revisions\/325818"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/325794"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=325792"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=325792"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=325792"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}