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The incident involved an Iranian flying-wing drone carrying small arms to Hamas fighters over a very long distance.
Israel has revealed that its F-35I stealth jets have taken part in their first aerial engagements, shooting down at least two Iranian drones that it says were heading toward Israeli territory last year. This is the first time that F-35s operated by any nation have been confirmed as having destroyed airborne threats and it reflects the rapid pace with which Israel has expanded the use of these sophisticated jets — known locally as ‘Adir’ or ‘mighty one’ — in combat operations. The incident also underscores the continued mismatch between expensive high-end fighters and their missile armament, as well as other air defense systems, and the relatively low-cost but proliferating drone threat, especially in the Middle East.Making History:
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) have also released the following video, showing one of the drones being engaged, from the perspective of an F-35I. While unclear if taken from the jet’s Electro-Optical Targeting System (EOTS) or the helmet-mounted display, this is the first time we have seen an F-35 taking part in an aerial engagement of this kind.
While the incident itself happened in March of last year, details of the engagement were only made public yesterday by the IDF. According to their account, Israeli Air Force (IAF) F-35Is intercepted two Iranian drones “on their way to Israel,” shooting them down at “a great distance from Israel.”
In March 2021, IAF F-35I "Adir" fighter jets successfully intercepted two Iranian UAVs launched towards Israeli territory.
Where exactly the drones were shot down is unclear, but the IDF stated that the interception was carried out “in coordination with neighboring countries, thus preventing intrusion [of the drones] into Israel.” This could suggest that the drones were launched from Iraqi or Syrian territory by Iranian proxies and were then engaged once over Jordan, something the IDF has said has happened before.
Reports indicate that while two of the drones were shot down by the F-35Is, a third was brought down using some kind of electronic warfare system. The three drones are all said to have been tracked during their flights by ground-based Israeli surveillance systems.
The drones themselves were carrying firearms to the Gaza Strip, according to the IDF, and these weapons were presumably intended for delivery to the militant wing of the Palestinian group Hamas, which is based there and which has received significant support from Tehran in the past.
The IDF has described the drone as the Shahed-197, although that is not a designation that has previously been publicized. The limited available evidence from the video suggests that the drone type is at least related to the Shahed-161 family of flying-wing unmanned aerial vehicles. These are Iranian designs that were inspired by the U.S. RQ-170 Sentinel, but which are much smaller and typically propeller-driven, as the drone in the video appears to be.
Israel Shows The F-35’s First Aerial Kill In Newly Declassified Video
The incident involved an Iranian flying-wing drone carrying small arms to Hamas fighters over a very long distance.
www.thedrive.com
