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The Whole Story with Anderson Cooper: The Rise of Christian Nationalism; Trump: U.S. Airman "Safe & Sound" After Rescue Operation. Aired 12:15a-1a ET

Aired April 05, 2026 - 00:15   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

ANNOUNCER: This is CNN breaking news.

SANDOVAL: And welcome back.

We do have some new developments on that search for that missing airman. President Trump has just posted the following on social media confirming that he has been rescued. The post is relatively long, and I will read you everything that the president just posted on his social media.

The president writing just a moment ago, "We got him. My fellow Americans, over the past several hours, the United States military pulled off one of the most daring search and rescue operations in U.S. history for one of our incredible crew member officers, who also happens to be a highly respected colonel, and who I am thrilled to let you know, is now safe and sound.

[00:15:15]

This brave warrior 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, but was never truly alone because his commander in chief, secretary of war, chairman of the joint chiefs of staff and fellow warfighters, were monitoring his location 24 hours a day and diligently planning for his rescue."

Again, this is President Trump writing the following. At my direction, the U.S. military sent dozens of aircraft armed with the most lethal weapons in the world to retrieve him. He sustained injuries, but he will be just fine," the president writes.

He also goes on to write, "This miraculous search and rescue operation comes in addition to a successful rescue of another brave pilot yesterday, which we did not confirm because we did not want to jeopardize our second rescue operation. This is the first time in military memory," says the president, "that the two U.S. pilots have been rescued separately, deep in enemy territory.

We will never leave an American warfighter behind. The fact that we were able to pull off both of these operations without a single American killed or wounded just proves once again that we have achieved overwhelming air dominance and superiority over the Iranian skies. This is a moment that all Americans, Republican, Democrat and everyone

else should be proud of and united around. We truly have the best, most professional and lethal military in the history of the world."

The president then closes his post by writing, "God bless America. God bless our troops and happy Easter to all again."

That was a very long post from the president, but certainly welcome news for Americans and specifically for the family of that missing airman that was shot down on Friday aboard that F-18E in southwest Iran.

I do want to go now to CNN's Kristie Lu Stout, who joins us just a short while ago from Hong Kong.

Well, look, Kristie, you and I were expecting this any moment now. And now confirmation directly from the White House as the president confirms that this airman is not only rescued, but he's safe.

KRISTIE LU STOUT, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That's right. A missing American pilot is now safe. This is according to that Truth Social post directly from the U.S. President Donald Trump.

He also added, quote, "We will never leave an American warfighter behind. This is as a result of what experts have been describing as a complicated, complex, and very dangerous mission. We know that this was a pilot who had been on the run for two days inside Iran, behind enemy lines with supplies, running out, food and water, also with limited comms and being actively pursued by Iranian military and Iranian tribesmen as well.

We've been reporting that there were Iranian tribesmen were shooting at U.S. helicopters inside Iran that were attempting to make sure -- to extract this pilot, to make sure that this pilot is safe and sound. But right now, what we know is, again, what we're hearing from the U.S. president and that Truth Social post saying, quote, "We got him," unquote.

Now, military analysts that we've been talking to here at CNN have said that pilots are trained for this scenario. There were also fears of an Iranian capture of this American pilot. In the event of such a capture, experts told us that he could be exploited for political propaganda. He could also be used to extract information from.

But again, this is what we're learning from the U.S. president claiming that this. Quote, "We got him," saying that this downed pilot who has been on the run inside Iran for two days, has been rescued.

It was on Friday when that two-seater, U.S. jet was downed by Iranian fire. One pilot was rescued. The other was not until, according to the U.S. president, this moment, a very dramatic turn of events in this ongoing war as it stretches into its second month.

And this also comes during a time of increasingly heated rhetoric between the leaders of Iran and the United States. Before the announcement of the rescue, that message from Donald Trump, quote, "We got him," unquote.

Donald Trump was leveling new threats against the Iranian regime, saying that all hell would break out if his deadline of tomorrow, April the 6th, is not met for Iran to reopen the Strait of Hormuz and to end the war.

We also heard Iranian military returned with a threat of its own, saying that the gates of hell would open on the U.S. and Israel if there are further strikes on Iranian infrastructure.

There are more strikes that have been taking place across the region. We've also been reporting on Israel claiming strikes on Iranian petrochemical plants. Israels prime minister says that Israel has already destroyed, quote, "70 percent of Iran's steel production capacity, and it's now going after its petrochemical infrastructure as well."

[00:20:08]

This remains a kinetic war, a lot happening in the battlefield, a very dramatic battle between Iran and U.S., and these and the leadership of both places in terms of rhetoric as well. And now this dramatic announcement from the U.S. president saying the hunt for the missing American pilot who has been behind enemy lines for two days, is now over. The U.S. president on Truth Social, saying, quote, in all caps, we got him.

Polo, back to you.

SANDOVAL: That dramatic announcement and very welcome, especially by the family of that service member.

CNN's Kristie Lu Stout, thank you so much for that live report.

I want to head over now to retired U.S. Army Major General Mark MacCarley. He's the founder of the legal firm MacCarley and Rosen.

Thank you so much for joining us, General.

I'm wondering if I could just get off the top your reaction to this news from President Trump, that the service member was -- has been rescued?

MAJ. GEN. MARK MACCARLEY (RET.), U.S. ARMY: As a service member and a U.S. citizen, I am totally elated. This is a wonderful outcome in what could have been disastrous for the U.S. in terms of the global perspective of this conflict with Iran.

SANDOVAL: I'm curious if you could -- you just really punctuate that last point, general, just how high, how high the stakes were not only obviously with the life of the service member hanging in the balance, but also what this could have potentially meant diplomatically and militarily for this conflict that rages on.

MACCARLEY: If that crew member of that F-15 Strike Eagle had in fact been captured by the Iranians, there is no doubt in my mind that the Iranians would exploit that capture. That service member would see himself paraded in front of social media outlets in Iran, television, and the caption on that is America is weak. Its claim of indefensibility has now been stricken, and we Iranians will prevail in this conflict.

And then, of course, what was discussed by several of your other commentators is the exploitation of that service member in custody, the efforts. And I would certainly assert very violent efforts to extract valuable information from that very proud and heroic member of our air force.

SANDOVAL: Thankfully, that was not the case. When you -- just in reading over this post from the president, General, it really does paint a harrowing picture of what the last day and a half had been like for the service member, as the president writes, that he was behind enemy lines and treacherous mountains of Iran being hunted down by our enemies, wrote the president, but also that he -- the president suggesting here that the military was essentially monitoring 24 hours a day and planning this rescue.

So based on this post from the president, it seems that it's likely that the Pentagon knew exactly where he was, perhaps just waiting for that most ideal moment to mitigate risks, given the small arms fire that they experienced recently, to be able to extract them.

MACCARLEY: Yeah, I appreciate that. Your explanation of the dynamics of a search and rescue recovery mission, to get down to the basics at the moment that that crew member ejected from the F-15 and an emergency beacon is activated and that communicates with a satellite system, the signal is sent to command headquarters and that initiates the search and rescue operation.

The question I had personally, especially since almost 48 hours transpired or had transpired since the ejection, is whether or not that was that system was either degraded or somehow the signal was lost. But based upon what we see now, the signal must have continuously emitted -- was continuously emitting information about the location of this crew member, all of this encrypted under some very, very dangerous and difficult circumstances.

And you even addressed, uh, and it came up a couple of times about the geography of this particular location on that west side of Iran. It is mountainous, certainly not near any urban center at all.

[00:25:02]

For anyone that is in a situation such as this crew member, he's ejected, he's injured. He has very light kit, meaning he has some very few rations, a little bit of water, and here he is in the midst of nowhere trying to evade a multiplicity of Iranians who have been motivated by this offer. This both an inspirational offer from the Islamic republic leadership, whomever that is at this particular point in time, plus the alleged incentive of $60,000 U.S. dollars.

So, putting all this together, it was extremely dangerous. And once again, we salute the members of our armed services who conducted this rescue mission and were able to extract this service member.

The situation otherwise would make tomorrow a very, very difficult day, not only for that crew member if he were apprehended, but more importantly for the whole effort that has been expended thus far in this conflict.

SANDOVAL: Absolutely. So much on the line.

Major General McCarthy, if you could just stay with us for a moment as I bring in your fellow retired service member into our conversation as we follow the breaking news there from the Middle East.

Joining us now is CNN military analyst and former Air Force Colonel Cedric Leighton joining us here.

I wonder, we just got some of this breaking news from the White House.

Colonel, what's your initial reaction as we just hearing the general describing just how high the stakes were? This is -- this is the outcome that we all had hoped for. Are you surprised, though, the way this all played out?

COL. CEDRIC LEIGHTON (RET), CNN MILITARY ANALYST: Well, I know that the way in which all of these things come together, just as General MacCarley was explaining, I -- there can be some great successes because of all the training that these people have had, and the entire system really has, and what you're talking about here is the possibility of a lot of failures in a -- in a situation like this. But where there is that possibility, there's also the possibility of success.

And one of the things that is really key in this, I think, is the fact that they were able to maintain a very disciplined approach to searching for this air force officer, the fact that they were able to, uh, get him after, get him out, extract him after all these days, speaks really to the not only the training, but the experience that the search and rescue community has had in the air force and that very fact, I think has, has paid a lot of dividends in this particular case. The experiences, you know, that date back, you know, to even, in the 1950s, but certainly to the Vietnam war. And then to desert storm and to Iraqi freedom and to other military contingencies.

And of course, in Bosnia, those kinds of things have really made a difference. The experiences that were gleaned there, plus the technology that's also involved in this, Polo, the general was describing the beacons that are used in this. And the fact that there is communication with satellites, the fact that those communications were either not detected or not sufficiently understood by the Iranians, that also probably helped with the ability to rescue the Air Force officer and that really made a difference, I think, in his ability to, uh, evade capture as well as to get out there -- out of there safely.

SANDOVAL: Colonel Leighton, General MacCarley, thank you both so much for your -- for your service, for your analysis. Do stand by for me as we head over now to the Middle East. I want to go -- actually, let's go live now to Jim Sciutto, who's

joining us live in Tel Aviv.

Jim, what are you hearing from your sources after the president's announcement?

JIM SCIUTTO, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL SECURITY ANALYST: Well, we've been following this very closely all throughout the night. I was first told that on Friday that the U.S. had communicated with this downed pilot on Friday at about noon Eastern. So, in the evening hours in the Middle East here. So, they had early communications with him. And then, of course, the process continued to find him, locate him and get him out safely.

I was also told that he had been injured initially in the ejection, which of course presented other difficulties, right? Because they were concerned about getting him out, getting him out safely, being able to treat those injuries.

Now, with the president's announcement, we know that some well, a good 24 hours later with this quite complex operation, the president says dozens of aircrafts and aircraft involved. You know, this is a difficult and dangerous thing to do. Search and rescue, because it's one thing to fly bombing and strike missions over Iran, hostile territory. But when you're flying in multiple aircraft at much lower altitudes, because of course you have to get down to the ground to locate and then extract the pilot, you also put those aircraft in danger, and that includes not, you know, jet aircraft flying at high altitudes, but fixed wing prop aircraft like C-130s that are involved in helicopters, which would have been under risk of taking fire as well.

So, it's quite a remarkable operation that we should note was carried out over days location extraction over days with great danger to all those involved. And it is quite an achievement to get the pilot out safely, given that Iran was certainly looking for him as well. And we also know that the Iranian government was encouraging residents on the ground to look for him, locate him, offering rewards for his location, turning him into the authorities.

So, you had multiple people trying to get to this pilot first. I think you could describe it as a race, right? A race between U.S. forces and Iranian forces. And thankfully, the pilot is safe. And U.S. forces in a highly complex operation were able to, in effect, win that race and get him out safely.

SANDOVAL: Yeah, without a doubt, Jim, this will certainly lead to at least a moment of celebration. Curious, though, what happens next, right? I mean, the president has just told the NBC -- NBC News that this would not affect the negotiations.

So now, that the United States has successfully recovered their missing service member, what happens next with this with this deadline on the horizon?

SCIUTTO: Yeah. Well, listen, speaking to Israeli officials for some time, they have not seen actual progress in negotiations. And the president and the White House and others have not presented evidence that there is progress in those negotiations. And to date, those have been indirect talks, right? Not face to face, but through intermediaries.

So, we'll see. We'll see if they go anywhere. The president -- in his statement saying that the war will continue. And of course, in the last several hours, he has threatened further action, expanding action against Iran if it doesn't open up the strait of Hormuz, threatening them once again.

One thing is clear. The war is not over and it will continue, at least for the two to three weeks that the president said in his address to the nation, you know, the extraction of this this pilot won't affect the continuation of the war, but it has made clear that though the president has claimed and he claimed again in his statement that the U.S. controls the skies over Iran, the fact is, two American aircraft were shot down in a single day this F-15 the crews, both members of the crew now recovered, but also the A-10. So, it shows that Iran maintains capability to threaten U.S. aircraft over, over Iran.

So that will be a threat that those pilots will continue to face.

SANDOVAL: That's CNN's Jim Sciutto now, with that live report. Jim, thank you so much.

We do want to continue our conversation now with CNN military analyst and former Air Force Colonel Cedric Leighton joining us, as well as General Mark MacCarley, as we continue with this conversation, as we work to learn more, gentlemen, as we just heard right now from Jim, that it's quite possible, according to multiple reports, that the Pentagon has had actually established contact on Friday and was in the process of rescuing him when they waited for the best moment.

Colonel, I wonder if I could go to you in terms of how that clock was ticking. As the general said earlier, they were very -- he was very limited with the resources he had, though he could rely on his training to potentially live off the land. I mean, ultimately time was running out

LEIGHTON: Yeah, that's absolutely right, Polo. And one of the things that you have to watch out for in a situation like this is not only do you have to make sure you get access to water and access to food if you need it, but you also have to make sure that you're on the move when you need to be on the move, or that you hunker down when you need to hunker down.

And in this particular case, this Colonel, you know, seemed to be doing the right thing and somehow was able to evade his captors. So, there were no reports of a lot of different elements of the Basij, the Iranian militia coming after him. And that fact, the fact that he was being looked for, that there was a bounty on his head as Jim was mentioning earlier that, you know, really compounds the problem. So, there's motivation by the adversary to find the downed airmen.

[00:35:05] And there's also obviously motivation on the part of the airmen to make sure he's not caught. And in this particular case, that worked out the communication system that he used enabled them to track him, enabled the people in the search and rescue squadron to track him. But that tracking also, as the president mentioned in his posting on social media, that tracking went all the way really to the White House, certainly to the pentagon, but definitely to the white house as well. In this case. And that very fact allowed for proper mission planning to occur.

But even with that ability to plan these missions, the timing part is always a factor because the longer you stay within denied territory, the more likely it is that you're going to be captured or that you know you're going to run out of luck, basically. And that, uh, that is something where they were racing against the clock. And in this particular case, I would say they beat the clock.

SANDOVAL: They absolutely did.

General, as we wait to learn more, there's so much that we still do not know. And that is, you know, details about this operation in general, what kind of special forces would you expect to have participated in the operation to, to extract this airman.

MACCARLEY: You know, certainly you have those dedicated members of both the air force, what are called PJs, pararescue, some of the finest in the world. And they basically were running this operation in coordination with Army Special forces, and soldiers who were in those aircraft searching for this downed airmen. So, we had the right people and the right equipment.

But frankly, we got lucky because my particular concern after so many hours had elapsed, we're not talking about the first five hours, three to five hours, when there's a high expectation that you can recover a downed pilot. But because we went to almost two days just as the colonel had indicated, that raises concerns that either the airman was injured, there were equipment failures or he was in some sort of situation that made it very, very difficult to continue with this mission because of the risk associated with the Iranians shooting everything they had, at any sort of rescue operation.

So, we were lucky. That is a wonderful thing, but there are, as you described, a lot of challenges, just really briefly, one of the interesting challenges that will have to be faced by those who are in what we call, the development of operational planning, especially from the air side of the house, is that the Iranians were able to take down that Strike Eagle.

It isn't a, what we call a fifth generation aircraft, which is supposed to be invisible to radar. It is a highly advanced aircraft with multiple capabilities, but it suggests that the next effort to move forward and continue the destruction of those military assets and perhaps other areas of significant -- strategic significance, we're going to have to look at the force package. How many Strike Eagles, whether we have to fly this completely with fifth generation F-35s, all those complex issues that have now arisen, plus what we've heard is that Chinese are in fact supporting the Iranians and have provided some highly unique and apparently very effective defense systems.

SANDOVAL: Now, without a doubt, this certainly raises more questions and potentially a reassessment of the strategy.

Colonel Leighton, General Mark MacCarley, thank you both so much for your expertise on this. And I'm so happy to be speaking under these circumstances. Thank you both.

LEIGHTON: You bet, Polo. Thanks for having us.

SANDOVAL: And stay with us. Our breaking news coverage continues after a break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

SANDOVAL: Welcome back to CNN's breaking news coverage. I'm Polo Sandoval in New York.

In just a few moments ago, President Trump announcing on his social media that that second service member that was shot down over Iran on Friday has been successfully rescued by U.S. forces. "He's safe and sound," as the president wrote.

As we wait to learn more, want to get some analysis now from more of our experts, joined now by CNN national security analyst Alex Plitsas. He's a former Pentagon official and U.S. Army Special Operations veteran. He's currently the director of the Atlantic Council's counterterrorism program.

Alex, thank you so much for joining us. Can you hear me okay?

ALEX PLITSAS, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY ANALYST: Yeah, thanks so much for having me

SANDOVAL: So, Alex, you have been with us every step of the way since this incident started on Friday. I'm curious if I could get just your initial reaction to the president's announcement that the service member is safe and sound, as the president put it.

PLITSAS: So, first of all, relief that the service members are okay. We've been watching this, obviously, since the aircraft went down. And it was, you know, it was unknown. The condition really wasn't clear. U.S. Central Command in the White House hadn't released any statements.

[00:45:00]

And now, given the extraordinary measures that were taken to recover the weapon system officer on board the aircraft, now we know why.

SANDOVAL: In your view, also, how much of a loss this is for Iran's regime? I mean, you're talking about, you know, a government that was going out of its way to essentially offer a reward for Iranian civilians, hoping that they would enlist the help of people on the ground. Fortunately, though, this outcome. So I'm curious what this in your analysis, what this could mean for the regime. PLITSAS: Sure. So out of 13,000 targets that were struck, you know, this was the first aircraft that went down inside the country where pilot and weapon system officer went down and there was, you know, folks trying to make a big deal out of the fact that it went down as if it was some sort of strategic victory for Iran. It was not in itself, if you think about it just numerically, where it would have been a strategic victory or not. Excuse me, not a victory would have been a strategic outcome potentially for Iran is if they were able to capture either the pilot or the weapon system officer.

So, the successful extraction of the weapon system officer, you know, now, you know, a couple days later has prevented Iran from not only a propaganda victory, but also a potential bargaining chip that could have been used in negotiations with the United States. So, this was a very successful operation that prevented the United States from potentially having to deal with this across the table from Iran, and now can pursue its objectives militarily again.

SANDOVAL: And a reminder to our viewers is that President Trump's deadline is approaching. That is set for Monday.

Unless that changes, in your view, with this now resolved, as of course, still waiting to learn more about the operation itself. But what happens next in terms of these efforts to potentially end this conflict?

PLITSAS: Sure. So, we're still on track based on the initial objectives to complete a bombing run. So, there were about 16,000 targets total. We know that because the Central Command commander has come out and stated that there were about 13,000 struck and about 3,000 left with two to three weeks left of bombing.

What's changed since the initial objectives, which were again to take out the drones, the missiles, the industrial base that was associated with them, the navy and the air force, while the nuclear sites haven't really been struck at this point, is the straits of Hormuz, which Iran is attempting to hold at risk, which is why they're not being transited while they're not closed, ship owners feel uncomfortable transiting there.

That still remains open at this point. So, this could have been a significant problem. So, at this point, it will depend on what the president wants to do with those objectives. He's made statements this week about potentially leaving it for the allies or others to deal with, since the U.S. gets very little oil out of here, I think we'll know in the next few days or so where that's going to stand.

But to your point, he made Monday the deadline to get the Iranians to come to the table, open up the straits and see if they could get a negotiated end to the war or the conflict. At this point, the Iranians seem to have rejected that that Pakistani process. What I did hear yesterday, and speaking to mediators in the region, is that the process that was undertaken by the Pakistanis to try to get a negotiated settlement didn't appear to be leading to a successful outcome. Hearing that the Turks may try to step in in the interim, but without a negotiated settlement or some sort of sign from Iran by Monday, the president has stated that he will potentially open up significant military action at that time.

SANDOVAL: Alex, the president writes in his post that the -- referring to the rescue of this of this airman, that this is a moment that all Americans, Republicans, Democrats and everybody else should be proud of and united around. Obviously, there certainly is some celebrating that should happen. However, do you perhaps expect this to further embolden the president's resolve when it comes to this conflict?

PLITSAS: You know, I think, we're going to remain on track for those targets that are left at this point is what we're hearing again, about 3,000 targets left. You know, a significant, you know, focus was placed on this event at a tactical level because it could have had a strategic outcome in the event that the pilot was captured or the weapon systems officer was captured, which didn't happen. I don't think its going to change the trajectory of the war in that sense.

I don't know that it's necessarily going to embolden or not. It could have had a negative implication for moving forward in the event that this was going to move to negotiations again, giving Iran another bargaining chip. But by all accounts, this was a very precarious situation. The rescue operation that was undertaken involved hundreds of forces, you know, multiple different special operations units on the ground and in the air with potentially some aircraft actually having to be destroyed on the ground because they got stuck.

So, this was very, very precarious, very gutsy call by the commanders on the ground. And in the end, it paid off. And U.S. forces were successful in extracting that pilot.

SANDOVAL: Alex Plitsas, thank you so much for guiding us through every step of these developments from the very beginning. Really appreciate all of your analysis.

I want to keep the conversation going now and head over to Cedric Leighton -- Colonel Cedric Leighton, retired U.S. Air Force to try to get a better understanding of what took place.

[00:50:00]

You also are a voice that has been with us from the beginning, as we wait to see what comes next, and all of us hoping for this possible outcome off of what Alex just said. The precarious nature of this mission. I want to give you a chance to really sort of highlight that. I mean, what could have gone wrong in your view?

LEIGHTON: Yeah, let me count the ways, Polo.

SANDOVAL: Yeah.

LEIGHTON: There are so many different things that could have gone wrong. You know, it kind of reminds me of the situation with the -- basically the killing of Osama bin Laden back in 2011, because we had that situation with the tail rotor that got stuck on the wall of the compound that bin Laden was staying in. So that kind of thing, can actually happen very easily. And, you know, you got to remember the type of climate that we're

dealing with here in Iran, a largely arid country to a large extent, although the part of Iran, the southwestern part of Iran, where this incident took place in Khuzestan province is a bit more -- has a bit more vegetation than some other parts of Iran, there's still a lot of dust and a lot of grime that can get into everything as simple as the engine of an aircraft.

And if the works are gummed up, let's say in an engine or, you know, with the landing gear or with something else like that, that can really impact everything. And these operations are basically choreographed operations where every little piece has to work before, you know, before everything can, can come together. And in cases where those little pieces don't work, there have to be ways to overcome them. So, a system of redundancies is basically what's needed in a case like this.

And those redundancies have been perfected over time. You know, if we had tried to mount this operation in the 1980s, it -- early 1980s, it would not have been successful, most likely, or it would have been at least much more difficult operation to conduct.

But with the types of technology that we have, the ability to basically follow the airmen that that was downed, and bring him or her out, that kind of thing is, you know, is really an advance that, you know, previous generations didn't have.

But in other cases, you know, you also have the possibility of things that are not even planned for. There could be, you know, someone takes a wrong turn in a village and all of a sudden, they're face to face with a policeman.

So those are the kinds of things, you know, little things, big things that can go wrong. And when they do go wrong, they can spell disaster for a mission. And luckily, it appears that none of that happened in this particular case.

SANDOVAL: President Trump wrote that this brave warrior was behind enemy lines in the treacherous mountains of Iran, Colonel. Um, just, just tapping into the training, that rigorous training that these service members undergo. I mean, what was this individual likely doing for a day, a day and a half? Was it essentially hiding out in the mountains?

LEIGHTON: Yeah, that's basically what it seems to be. There was another report on social media that referenced 7,000-foot-high cliff that they were navigating, and so, these are very rugged mountains. The terrain in that area is fairly rugged.

And what probably happened in this particular case was the colonel was, you know, basically trying to evade capture. Sometimes what they'll do is they'll try to minimize their movements during the daytime. And that's, you know, that's one of the things that, you know, that will happen. They minimize the movements in the day and, but come out at night and then that's where they can, you know, have the greatest chance of success usually in evading, you know, these the capture of, you know, by hostile forces.

SANDOVAL: Colonel, before we wrap up this hour of coverage, I'm curious what this does now in terms of the aerial assault plans for the U.S. military. Obviously, and we touched on it earlier that the Iranians were successfully able to take down this aircraft. What are the lessons to be learned? And does this perhaps change the approach?

LEIGHTON: Yeah, I think it probably should because you definitely don't want to lose aircraft and you don't want to have to mount any more search and rescue operations if you don't have to. But it's great that we have that capability and can do that and have those highly trained search and rescue crews to do those kinds of missions.

But the kind of changes that we're looking for include changes in mission planning. And certainly there has to be a lot of intelligence analysis, you know, General MacCarley, mentioned that, there are going to be, you know, there's going to be a look at probably the Chinese involvement in this, you know, are they providing technology that allows the Iranians to go after the heat that comes out of the exhaust of our aircraft?

[00:55:08]

And that's particularly true of F-15s, which has General MacCarley mentioned, are fourth generation aircraft. So that's the kind of thing that since they're not stealth aircraft, uh, that is one of those key elements that needs to be looked at. How much do you need to protect the weapon systems that we currently have, and how do they need to fly into an area like Iran that may have a more dangerous and more risky approach to it than that was the case before?

SANDOVAL: Colonel Cedric Leighton and also -- again, thank you so much for guiding us through all of this. And so pleased to be talking under these circumstances. I'll let you take a break as we begin our next hour of coverage.

I'm Polo Sandoval in New York.

"WORLD SPORT" is next, and I'll be right back at the top of the hour with more CNN NEWSROOM. Don't go anywhere.