‘They got very lucky,’ Trump says of downed Apache helicopter’s crew

President Donald Trump on Wednesday said two U.S. Army aviators “got very lucky” after an AH-64 Apache attack helicopter was downed by Iran over the Strait of Hormuz, emphasizing that American retaliation for the incident is not over.

Speaking to reporters in the Oval Office, the president declared, “We hit them hard yesterday and we’re going to hit them hard again today.”

Trump initially claimed in a Truth Social post on Tuesday that Iran had shot down the aircraft, before revising his account a day later to say it was struck by an Iranian ordnance that failed to detonate on impact.

“That bomb was lodged in the helicopter, it didn’t explode. It was on fire but it didn’t explode,” Trump explained. “Those two guys, they knew how to fly, but they got very lucky.”

He then quipped: “You won’t believe the rescue, how cool it was.”

The crew members were retrieved by a remotely piloted Navy surface drone, in what Trump and military officials described as the first U.S. operation of its kind.

Still, the episode demonstrated one asymmetrical element of the conflict. U.S. officials said a low-cost Iranian Shahed-136 drone — estimated to cost roughly $20,000 — engaged the American attack helicopter valued at between $35 million and $40 million.

Describing the subsequent rescue, Capt. Tim Hawkins, a spokesman for Central Command, told Military Times that the unmanned surface vessel retrieved the downed aviators and ferried them to a rendezvous point at sea, where they were then hoisted aboard a helicopter for extraction.

“The surface drone that assisted in [Monday’s] rescue of the Apache crew off the coast of Oman was a U.S. Navy Corsair unmanned surface vessel operated by U.S. 5th Fleet’s Task Force 59,” he said. “The task force began fielding these drones in theater in late March.”

The 24-foot Corsair — built by Texas-based Saronic Technologies — can carry payloads of up to 1,000 pounds over a 1,000-nautical-mile range and reach speeds of up to 35 knots, according to the company’s website .

Soon after the U.S. began carrying out retaliatory strikes on Tuesday night, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi, in a social media post, wrote that “our powerful armed forces will leave no attack or threat unanswered.” The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps later announced, through a statement carried by Iranian state TV, that it had conducted 21 attacks on U.S. bases across the region, including in Bahrain, Kuwait and Jordan.

But despite the fresh wave of attacks, Trump on Wednesday insisted that a peace agreement can be reached.

“We’ll see what happens with the deal. We were really close to a deal but they keep tapping us along, they keep playing us for suckers,” Trump said. “All they have to do is they have to start signing a paper, it’s fully negotiated.”

Given that negotiations are highly sensitive and secret, it’s unclear how close — or distant — the sides are from an agreement.

A delegation of Qatari officials arrived in Iran on Wednesday in an effort to broker a deal between Washington and Tehran, a source familiar with the discussions told Military Times, speaking on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the matters publicly.

Tanya Noury is a reporter for Military Times and Defense News, with coverage focusing on the White House and Pentagon.

周三，美国总统唐纳德·特朗普表示，两名美国陆军飞行员在一架AH-64阿帕奇攻击直升机在霍尔木兹海峡上空被伊朗击落后“非常幸运”，并强调美国对该事件的报复行动尚未结束。

总统在椭圆形办公室对记者说：“我们昨天狠狠打击了他们，今天我们还要再次狠狠打击他们。”

特朗普最初在周二的 Truth Social 帖子中声称伊朗击落了这架飞机，但一天后他又修改了说法，称飞机是被伊朗的一枚未爆炸的弹药击中的。

“那枚炸弹卡在直升机里，但没有爆炸。它着火了，但就是没爆炸，”特朗普解释说。“那两个人，他们懂飞行，但他们运气真好。”

然后他打趣道：“你绝对想象不到那次救援有多酷。”

船员们被海军遥控水面无人机救起，特朗普和军方官员称这是美国首次此类行动。

然而，这一事件也暴露了冲突中一个不对称的因素。美国官员称，一架伊朗低成本的“沙赫德-136”无人机（估计造价约为2万美元）与一架价值3500万至4000万美元的美国武装直升机交战。

中央司令部发言人蒂姆·霍金斯上尉在向《军事时报》描述随后的救援行动时表示，无人水面舰艇救起了坠落的飞行员，并将他们运送到海上会合点，然后他们被吊上直升机撤离。

他说：“参与周一在阿曼海岸附近营救阿帕奇直升机机组人员的水面无人机是美国海军的‘海盗’无人水面舰艇，由美国第五舰队第59特遣部队操作。该特遣部队于3月下旬开始在战区部署这些无人机。”

据该公司网站介绍，由总部位于德克萨斯州的 Saronic Technologies 公司制造的 24 英尺长的 Corsair 飞机，可携带高达 1,000 磅的有效载荷，航程达 1,000 海里，最高速度可达 35 节。

周二晚间美国开始进行报复性空袭后不久，伊朗外长阿巴斯·阿拉格奇在社交媒体上发文称，“我们强大的武装力量将对任何攻击或威胁予以回击。” 随后，伊朗伊斯兰革命卫队通过伊朗国家电视台发表声明，宣布对包括巴林、科威特和约旦在内的该地区美军基地发动了21次袭击。

尽管新一轮袭击事件不断发生，特朗普周三仍坚称可以达成和平协议。

“我们拭目以待。我们本来已经非常接近达成协议了，但他们却一直拖延，一直把我们当傻子耍，”特朗普说。“他们只需要开始签署文件，谈判已经全部完成了。”

鉴于谈判高度敏感且保密，目前尚不清楚双方距离达成协议有多近，或者有多远。

据《军事时报》报道，一位熟悉相关讨论的消息人士透露，一个卡塔尔官员代表团于周三抵达伊朗，试图促成华盛顿和德黑兰之间的协议。该消息人士要求匿名，因为他们没有被授权公开讨论此事。

Tanya Noury 是《军事时报》和《防务新闻》的记者，她的报道主要集中在白宫和五角大楼。