WASHINGTON -- The U.S. military has lost or damaged at least 81 aircraft, drones and helicopters worth up to $3.3 billion in its war against Iran, according to a Congressional Research Service report, as new data showed the war is driving Treasury yields to 20-year highs and pushing the Federal Reserve toward further rate hikes.

The CRS report found the losses include 12 F-15E Strike Eagles, 45 MQ-9 Reaper drones, two A-10 Thunderbolt IIs, seven KC-135 refueling tankers, one E-3 Sentry AWACS aircraft, one F-35A Lightning II, one MQ-4C Triton, four AH-6 Little Bird helicopters, and an MH-60 Sea Hawk, among others.

Three F-15Es were destroyed in a friendly-fire incident over Kuwait on March 2, while a fourth was downed over Iran in April. Eight more sustained  damage in Iranian strikes on Jordan's Muwaffaq Salti Air Base in September.

The F-35A, valued at more than $92 million, was damaged by Iranian ground fire on March 19. The loss of the $270 million E-3 Sentry was specifically flagged, with CRS warning that the loss of such "rare and aging platforms" could create capability gaps elsewhere and strain the U.S. military industrial base.

The Reaper losses reduced the Air Force's operational fleet to 135 aircraft, well below the required minimum of 189, an Air Force general told the Senate in May.

The Congressional Budget Office estimated equipment losses at $1.9 billion to $3.3 billion as of August 1. A Pentagon Inspector General report released September 14 — the first official accounting — found "strategic inventory shortfalls" and exposed bottlenecks in the military industrial base's ability to resupply, with $3.7 billion in equipment losses alone.

The war's economic fallout intensified Wednesday. The U.S. 30-year Treasury yield climbed back to its highest since 2002 at 5.72%, as Brent crude pushed past $102 a barrel following renewed Iranian attacks on trespassing vessels in the Strait of Hormuz.

Ten-year yields hovered near their highest since 2002 before a $39 billion bond sale and the release of Federal Reserve meeting minutes.

"Persistently high energy prices keep risks to inflation, policy rates, and benchmark bond yields skewed to the upside," said Elias Haddad at Brown Brothers Harriman & Co.

Swaps markets now show a 24% chance of a Federal Reserve rate hike this month, with a hike fully priced by the end of the year. The term premium on 30-year Treasuries — the extra yield investors demand to hold long-term debt — was at its highest since 2011 as of Tuesday.

"The bond bear market since the start of the year is primarily a story of central bank repricing," said Bank of America rates strategist Ralf Preusser.

Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody's Analytics, attributed the yield surge directly to the war. "One day before the U.S. bombed Iran in late February, international oil prices were close to $60 per barrel and the U.S. 10-year Treasury yield was below 4%," Zandi wrote on X.

"In contrast, oil prices are now approaching $100 per barrel and the 10-year yield has climbed to 5.25%. It's not difficult to identify the connection between these two situations".

Cerity Partners' fourth-quarter outlook noted that with core PCE inflation "quite a distance from the target at 3.0% heading into the fourth quarter, there is a high probability of at least one more federal funds rate hike in 2026".

The firm warned that "with so much of the inflation outlook dependent upon the prospective duration and magnitude of the Iran war, it is difficult for economic analysts to predict the timing for any meaningful energy price relief".

The costs are becoming a political liability ahead of November's midterm elections. A Quinnipiac University poll in July found 60% of voters opposed U.S. military action against Iran, while 62% disapproved of President Trump's handling of the situation.

More recently, an Army Times report cited a Quinnipiac poll showing 53% of American voters oppose the military action, and 74% oppose sending in ground troops.

Democrats have seized on the war's costs as a campaign issue, seeking to link energy prices and inflation to foreign policy decisions. "The White House speaks of national security, deterrence, and American strength, while opponents of the government try to tie the bill to Americans' daily lives," one analysis noted.