The Israel Defence Force says it has used its F-35I ‘Adir’ fighters in recent combat operations, marking the combat debut for the long-awaited fifth-generation fighter.
During a May 22 speech to visiting air chiefs at a conference in Israel, IAF commander Major General Amikam Norkin showed a picture of an F-35I flying over Beirut.
“I think we are the first to attack with F-35 in the Middle East,” he said. “I’m not sure about other areas, but as you can see here, we already attacked, and this is the first time that we are talking about this issue.
“Our main goal for the short term is to integrate the fifth-generation airplane with the fourth-generation squadrons,” he said. “[It’s] a huge challenge and I think we started to understand the huge potential of this platform.”
Today, the Commander of the Israeli Air Force, Major General Amikam Norkin addressed senior air force officials from more than 20 different countries pic.twitter.com/e7EGfNQk8c
— Israel Defense Forces (@IDF) May 22, 2018
Maj Gen Norkin’s claims were backed up by an IDF tweet later that day that said, “The Adir planes are already operational and flying in operational missions. We are the first in the world to use the F-35 in operational activity.”
Commander of the IAF, Maj. Gen. Amikam Norkin, commented on the events in Syria: “The Iranians fired 32 rockets, we intercepted 4 of them & the rest fell outside Israeli territory. In our response attack, more than 100 ground to air missiles were fired at our planes.”
— Israel Defense Forces (@IDF) May 22, 2018
No details about what missions the F-35Is may have taken part in were given, although one Israeli media report suggested they participated in an April 28 attack on Aleppo in Syria.
Interestingly, the photo of the F-35I over Beirut shows the aircraft fitted with at least two Luneburg lenses, small radar reflectors fitted to the top and underside of the F-35’s fuselage to make it more visible to radar when operating in controlled airspace.
Because of this, some analysts have claimed the IDF image is a fake, while others have suggested the reflectors may have been fitted intentionally so as to not allow the numerous Russian intelligence systems in the region to correctly analyse the F-35’s true radar cross section.
