Misleading headline; if you look at the actual US government source, 42 aircraft were either destroyed or damaged. Most of the actual losses (destroyed aircraft) were 24 MQ-9 Reaper drones.
Feels like a considerable loss.
Let's pause a moment to think about this sentence alone.
There is no innuendo. The only claim in this discussion is trying to cast doubt on semantics such as whether "destroyed" or "damaged" has a meaningful difference.
In the meantime, let's verify what the US government classifies as "damage".
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cwyd07m7e1xo
This doesn't even fit the old "the front fell off" skit.