On Friday, March 27, 2026, the American newspaper The Wall Street Journal, citing, among other sources, satellite imagery and its own reporting, stated that an Iranian missile and drone attack on the Al-Amir Sultan Air Base (better known as Prince Sultan) in Al-Kharj, Riyadh Province, Saudi Arabia, injured 10 U.S. service members, including two seriously, and damaged several Boeing KC-135 Stratotanker aerial refueling aircraft.
Photo: USAF
As a result of yesterday’s Iranian attack, at least one ballistic missile and several one-way unmanned aerial vehicles struck airport infrastructure. U.S. and Saudi sources confirmed the number of injured personnel and multiple damaged aircraft.
This was another such attack on the Saudi base. On Friday, March 14, The Wall Street Journal also reported that several days earlier, an Iranian strike on the base had damaged five KC-135 aircraft. No fatalities or injuries were reported, but the aircraft were taken out of service – at least for the time being (Collision of two KC-135s over Iraq – one crashed).
On the same day, Iranian media published radar imagery produced by Chinese optical satellites (Beijing provides Iran with such data – editor’s note), showing plumes of smoke over the base in areas where aircraft are parked.
‼️ ~2-3 KC-135s got hit and are on fire at Prince Sultan airbase in Saudi Arabia as confirmed by Chinese satellite imagery pic.twitter.com/6fGgjo0mvW
— Stellar Man (@stellarman22) March 27, 2026
At the same time, the European company Airbus Defence and Space released satellite images captured in the short-wave infrared (SWIR) spectrum by the Sentinel-2 satellite of the Copernicus Earth observation system, indicating sources of fires at the base.
SWIR data from a Sentinel-2 pass earlier today confirms at least one large, open fire burning on the apron. pic.twitter.com/kC1DokTHCf
— OSINTtechnical (@Osinttechnical) March 27, 2026
The actual extent of the damage is currently unknown. At the time of publication, neither the United States Central Command (CENTCOM) nor the authorities of Saudi Arabia had commented on the attack.
Al-Amir Sultan is a strategic forward operating base located deep inside Saudi Arabia, approximately 600 km from Iran’s coastline. Due to its strategic location, the base regularly hosts U.S. assets such as aerial refueling tankers, E-3G Sentry AWACS airborne early warning and control aircraft, and signals intelligence (SIGINT) platforms. Because of the U.S. military presence, the base has repeatedly been targeted by Iranian attacks in recent times.
During the March 1 attack, Sgt. Benjamin N. Pennington (26, from Kentucky) of the U.S. Army was wounded. He died of his injuries on March 8. He was the seventh (at that time) U.S. service member killed in the broader conflict with Iran. To date, a total of 14 U.S. service members have been killed in combat operations, mostly as a result of Iranian attacks on bases in the region and in the crash of a KC-135R aircraft in western Iraq on March 12 (additionally, one service member died in Kuwait of medical causes on March 6).
UPDATE
According to Air & Space Forces Magazine, one of the deployed E-3G Sentry AWACS aircraft is also among those damaged.
A detailed analysis of available materials confirms that at least one KC-135 Stratotanker was destroyed, while several others were damaged.
UPDATE 2
E-3G Sentry AWACS, tail number 81-0005, has been destroyed. This marks the first combat loss of its kind.
Pictures show the total loss of 81-0005, an E-3G “Sentry” Airborne Early Warning and Control (AEW&C) Aircraft with the U.S. Air Force’s 552nd Air Control Wing based out of Tinker Air Force Base, Oklahoma, following yesterday’s Iranian ballistic missile and drone attack on Prince… pic.twitter.com/NNnILybnrU
— OSINTdefender (@sentdefender) March 29, 2026
Iran releases satellite imagery claiming to show a destroyed U.S. Air Force E-3G Sentry AWACS aircraft at Prince Sultan Air Base in Saudi Arabia, before and after the March 27 strike. pic.twitter.com/GEbORn5VeP
— Open Source Intel (@Osint613) March 29, 2026
