Initial reports suggest that the pilot of a U.S. F-15 fighter aircraft, reportedly downed over Iranian territory, has been successfully rescued. If confirmed, this would mark the latest chapter in the long and complex history of U.S. combat search and rescue (CSAR) operations.
According to CBS News, the U.S. partner of the BBC, a search operation is currently underway within Iran to locate a second crew member.
Combat search and rescue missions are widely regarded as among the most challenging and time-sensitive operations undertaken by the U.S. and its allied militaries.
In the United States, specialized Air Force units receive rigorous training for CSAR missions and are often proactively deployed near potential conflict zones where aircraft losses are deemed possible.
At its core, a CSAR mission is a military endeavor focused on locating, providing assistance to, and potentially rescuing personnel in distress, including downed pilots and isolated military personnel.
Unlike conventional search-and-rescue operations, which typically occur during humanitarian crises or natural disasters, CSAR missions are executed within hostile or contested environments.
In some instances, such as the reported recovery effort in Iran on Friday, these operations may extend deep into enemy territory.
CSAR missions frequently involve helicopters, supported by aerial refueling tankers and other military aircraft providing strike capabilities and perimeter security.
A former commander of a pararescue jumpers squadron told CBS News that a rescue operation akin to the one reported in Iran would require a minimum of 24 pararescue jumpers deploying from Black Hawk helicopters to conduct a thorough search of the area.
The commander further stated that the team would be prepared to parachute from aircraft if necessary, with their initial objective upon reaching the ground being to establish contact with the missing crew member.
According to CBS News, upon locating the crew member, the pararescue jumpers would provide any necessary medical attention, evade enemy forces, and secure a location suitable for extraction.
“Harrowing and massively dangerous is an understatement,” the former commander told CBS News, underscoring the inherent risks involved.
The commander added: “This is what they train to do, all over the world. They are known as the Swiss Army knives of the Air Force.”
Verified video footage circulating from Iran on Friday appeared to depict U.S. military helicopters and at least one aerial refueling aircraft operating over Iran’s Khuzestan province.
These missions are highly time-critical, as enemy forces are likely to be deployed in the same area with the objective of locating the same U.S. personnel that the CSAR teams are attempting to rescue.
Former U.S. Marine Corps Special Operations specialist Jonathan Hackett told the BBC’s World Tonight program that a rescue team’s priority would be to locate any signs of life.
“They’re trying to work backwards from the last point they knew that person was, and fan out based on the speed that person could move under different circumstances in this really difficult terrain,” Hackett explained.
Hackett suggested that this type of reported rescue could be a “non-standard assisted recovery mission,” where indigenous groups in the area may have been previously contacted to establish contingency plans that could be activated to aid in potential rescues.
Airborne wartime rescue missions have a long history, tracing back to World War One pilots who made impromptu landings in France to rescue downed colleagues.
The U.S. military’s pararescue units trace their origins to a 1943 mission in which two combat surgeons parachuted into then-Burma – now Myanmar – to assist wounded soldiers.
According to Smithsonian’s Air & Space Magazine, the world’s first helicopter rescue occurred a year later, when a U.S. lieutenant rescued four soldiers from behind Japanese lines. This incident also marked the first operational use of a helicopter in combat.
Formal search-and-rescue units were initially established in the U.S. in the immediate aftermath of the conflict. However, modern CSAR began during the Vietnam War.
One mission, known as Bat 21, resulted in the loss of several aircraft and numerous U.S. casualties during attempts to recover the pilot of an aircraft shot down behind North Vietnamese lines.
The war necessitated a significant expansion of CSAR missions, with increased scope and complexity. This experience aided the military in refining tactics and procedures that have served as the foundation for rescue operations ever since.
While each U.S. military branch possesses its own limited CSAR capabilities, the U.S. Air Force holds primary responsibility for locating and rescuing military personnel.
This task is primarily carried out by pararescue jumpers, who are part of the military’s broader special-operations community.
The official pararescue motto is “These Things We Do, That Others May Live,” and their work is regarded as part of a broader commitment to U.S. service members that they will not be left behind.
These personnel are highly trained as both combatants and paramedics, and they undergo what is widely considered one of the most demanding selection and training pipelines in the U.S. military.
The selection-and-training process, which typically takes approximately two years from start to finish, includes parachute and dive training, as well as basic underwater demolition, survival, resistance and escape training, and a full civilian paramedic course.
They also receive specialized instruction in battlefield medicine, complex recovery operations, and weapons.
On the ground, these teams are led by specialized Combat Rescue Officers, who are responsible for planning, coordinating, and executing recovery missions.
Pararescue teams were extensively deployed throughout the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, conducting thousands of missions to rescue U.S. and allied troops who were wounded or required extraction.
In 2005, Air Force pararescue teams were involved in the recovery of a U.S. Navy SEAL who was wounded and seeking shelter in an Afghan village after his team was ambushed and its other three members killed – an incident later dramatized in the film *Lone Survivor*.
Missions to recover downed U.S. pilots have been infrequent in recent decades.
In 1999, the pilot of an F-117 stealth fighter shot down over Serbia was located and rescued by pararescuemen.
In a highly publicized incident in Bosnia in 1995, U.S. pilot Scott O’Grady was rescued in a joint Air Force and Marine Corps CSAR mission after being shot down and evading capture for six days.
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A separate search and rescue operation also encountered hostile fire, leading to the downing of another aircraft over the Persian Gulf.
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