F-35 Stealth Fighter’s Inaugural Combat Operations

Haaretz News reports that Israel is the first country in the world to carry out an “operational attack” with the F-35 stealth fighter, Israel Air Force commander Maj. Gen. Amikam Norkin said on Tuesday.

“I think that we are the first to attack with the F-35 in the Middle East,” Norkin said. The air force chief was speaking about the Middle East, but this is the first known operational use of the new fifth-generation fighter jet in the world.

Norkin presented images of the F-35 over Beirut, Lebanon, and said that while the stealth fighter did not participate in the most recent strike in Syria, it did in the two previous ones. He was speaking at a conference organized by the Israeli Air Force (IAF) in Herzliya, where senior officers from armies all over the world were invited.

The IAF commander said that Iran fired 32 rockets at Israel during the flare-up across the Syrian border earlier this month. According to him, four rockets were intercepted by Israel and the rest landed outside of Israeli territory, and more than 100 surface-to-air missiles were fired at Israeli jets over Syria.

“After that [the Iranian attack] we attacked over 20 Iranian targets in Syria. Unfortunately, Syrian air defense systems fired over 100 antiaircraft missiles at our planes and in response we destroyed their antiaircraft batteries,” Norkin said.

A senior IAF officer confirmed that the Israel Defense Forces has continued to operate against Iranian forces in Syria since the attack on Israel, which took place overnight between May 9 and 10.

“It is possible to assume that actions have been taken since the recent events,” he explained. “We are continuing to maintain our freedom of action in the region. We are acting to disrupt and prevent [possible attacks] while keeping the situation below the threshold of war.”

“We are continuing with our operational mission against the arming of Hezbollah and Iranian moves to establish themselves in Syria. As far as we are concerned, anywhere we identify consolidation [of Iranian forces] or the introduction of weapons, we act,” the officer added. “Our success is any move that serves the goals of the government leadership, this is our mission.”

IAF chief Norkin outlined the reasons behind Israel’s growing anxiety over Iranian activities in Syria. “The Quds Force established itself at T-4 base, 250 kilometers from Israel. From this base they tried to attack using a drone that entered into Israel, a few months ago. After this incident we realized that they were continuing to store weapons on this base, including air defense capabilities, which we attacked last month,” he explained at the conference.

“Over the past few weeks we learned that Iran had sent long-range missiles and rockets to Syria, including the Uragan launchers that we attacked north of Damascus,” added Norkin.

He told the conference that Israel’s squadron of F-35 jets has taken part in attacks in the Middle East, but the senior officer noted that even though the aircraft are now operational, the IAF is still examining the best ways to operate them. The F-35 has an “incredible potential” and the IAF is currently discussing how to best exploit its huge range of capabilities, he said.

For its part, Israel announced that none of its warplanes had been hit, rather that it had attacked five Syrian antiaircraft batteries and reportedly destroyed all of them after coming under heavy fire.

According to Haaretz’s senior military analyst, the attack dealt a severe blow to embattled Syrian leader Bashar Assad’s antiaircraft forces. The IAF said that five of the batteries that were hit belonged to the Syrian Army and were Russian-built models: SA-22, SA-2, SA-5 and SA-17.

The first use of the F-35 in combat is a major milestone for the aircraft that has been in development since the early 1990s. The program has been marred by both cost overruns and delays, and persistent attacks by critics who have called into question the jet’s warfighting abilities. This is welcome news for the U.S. Marine Corps, which has deployed its short take-off and vertical landing version, the F-35B, to Marine Corps Air Station Iwakuni in Japan, and the US Air Force, which plans to permanently deploy F-35As to the Royal Air Force Base Lakenheath, in England.

Category: Terror War