Iran was using 'jellyfish' swarm of drones, reports downed F-15 pilot

 THE US air force pilot shot down over Iran and then rescued in a special forces operation reported seeing a “jellyfish” formation of Iranian drones.

The pilot, whose F-15 was downed behind enemy lines in April, told intelligence officials in his debriefing that he saw a “minefield of drones” moving in unison before the plane was hit, CNN reported.

“Multiple drones interconnected and moving as one with smaller drones below the bigger drones like legs,” one unnamed source familiar with what the pilot told the officials said. “Real alien s---.”

US intelligence officials were not aware Tehran might have the weapon, known as “one-to-many meshed networking”, which allows a single operator to control multiple drones at once.

However, Russia and China, which are believed to be contributing to Iran’s drone programme, do possess the technology, according to Western intelligence.

The unusual drone formation could have contributed to the downing of the F-15, which is still under investigation, officials said.

However, some of those present at the pilot’s debriefing were sceptical about his description of the drones, CNN reported.

The pilot had been concussed in the crash, and some believed he saw a beta test of the technology rather than a mature military capability.

One reportedly asked him: “Are you sure you saw what you are saying you saw?”

It was the second time the pilot had been shot down during the war with Iran.

He was among the airmen in three US fighter jets downed by Kuwait during a friendly fire incident in early March.

When the pilot was shot down again in April – this time by Iranian forces – he and the weapons system operator on board ejected from the fighter jet over southern Iran.

The pilot was rescued hours later in a helicopter mission.

But the weapons system operator had to evade Iranian forces for more than a day as both Washington and Tehran raced to locate him after a $60,000 (£44,000) bounty was placed on his head.

Donald Trump later said in a Truth Social post that the airman was “behind enemy lines in the treacherous mountains of Iran, being hunted down by our enemies, who were getting closer and closer by the hour”.

The weapons operator, who was injured and armed with only a handgun, beacon, and encrypted communications device, made it to a ridge 7,000ft above sea level to avoid being captured.

The rescue operation involved dozens of special operations troops on the ground, including Navy Seal Team Six commandos, supported by warplanes, drones, helicopters and a Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) misinformation campaign.

The airman was rescued under the cover of darkness more than 24 hours after the fighter jet had crashed, in what the US president described as an “Easter miracle”.

CNN said it was not clear whether the weapons system operator had also seen the jellyfish-like formation of drones the pilot described seeing before they were shot down.