Shoulder-launched missile used to down US jet over Iran was likely Chinese — report

30 May 2026, 4:09 pm

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L-R: An image posted to social media on April 5, 2026, purportedly shows an airbase in Iran used by US forces to successfully rescue a downed US F-15 WSO. (Social media, used in accordance with Clause 27a of the Copyright Law); a handout photo provided by Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps official website Sepah News on April 5, 2026, purportedly shows smoke billowing from the site of targeted and crashed US aircraft in central Iran. (Sepah)

The shoulder-launched missile used to down the F-15 fighter jet over southwest Iran last month was likely made by China, NBC reports, citing three people with knowledge of the matter.

One of those sources and a US official told NBC that China may have also given Iran stealth aircraft and long-range early-warning radar equipment early in the war launched by Israel and the US on February 28, the network says.

The sources say the downing of the jet, which set off a 36-hour race to find the pilot, is still being investigated.

US President Donald Trump said last month that he had asked Chinese President Xi Jinping not to provide weapons to Iran. Xi assured Trump “that, essentially, he’s not doing that,” Trump said at the time.