Iranian authorities sources on June 17 reported the profitable shootdown of an Israeli Air Drive F-35 fighter plane within the skies above the town of Tabriz, with ground-based air defence techniques credited with the kill. Beforehand two F-35s have been reportedly shot down on June 13-14, with a feminine pilot reported captured, earlier than a 3rd shootdown reported on June 14 additionally noticed the surviving pilot apprehended by commandos. The probably veracity of Iranian claims was beforehand analysed by Army Watch intimately, together with assessments of the strengths and limitations of Iran’s air defences and vital dangers confronted by F-35s working on penetration missions deep inside closely defended airspace. It stays unsure which air defence system has been credited with the shootdown of the fourth fighter, althoughIranian authorities sources offering particulars of the primary three profitable engagements reported that Bavar 373 air defence techniques had been chargeable for all three kills. The most recent variant of the Bavar 373 unveiled in April 2024 boasts an prolonged 300 kilometre engagement vary, and in accordance with some Iranian sources makes use of a number of networked radars working in complementary wavebands to attain an extended monitoring vary in opposition to stealth plane, equally to the Russian S-400 system.
The placement of the town of Tabriz over 150 kilometres inside Iranian territory signifies that Israeli F-35s have continued for use for deep penetration missions, whereas the nation’s largely out of date F-15s and F-16s are relied on to fireside cruise and ballistic missiles into Iran from secure distances. Though such penetration flights place fighters at appreciable threat, they permit excessive diameter bombs with penetrative warheads to be dropped on targets. This makes it attainable to destroy closely fortified positions that air-launched missiles would wrestle to threaten. The F-35’s stealth capabilities, highly effective digital warfare suite, and vital skill to collect digital intelligence, between them make the plane notably effectively suited to flying into closely defended airspace. The in depth use of F-35s for such missions by the Israeli Air Drive makes the lack of simply 4 fighters seem comparatively conservative when contemplating the superior capabilities of Iranian air defences. Though the USA Air Drive fields a second class of fifth technology stealth fighter alongside the F-35, particularly the F-22, the plane’s a lot older radar, lack of comparable digital warfare or alerts intelligence capabilities, and inabilityto carry excessive diameter bombs, prevents it from posing an identical risk when used on penetration missions, as does its shorter vary.
Israel has ordered F-35s in 4 separate batches, with the primary order having been positioned in October 2010, after which the primary deliveries commenced in 2016. Though Israel has not been permitted to make vital modifications to the fighter’s avionics, it has been allowed to combine indigenous subsystems, particularly digital warfare techniques, onto the plane. As summarised by Normal Supervisor of the Lahav Division at Israel Aerospace Industries, Benni Cohen: “It is open structure, which sits on the F-35’s central system, very like an software in your iPhone. So it does not change something within the plane itself, nevertheless it provides the Israel Air Drive essentially the most superior and adaptable processing capabilities with relative independence of the plane producer.” This “introduces a brand new stage of freedom for the IAF [Israeli Air Force], because it paves the best way for extra superior capabilities to be embedded within the F-35I sooner or later,” he added. Main challenges in capturing down the F-35 thus embrace not solely the difficulties of forming and sustaining a concentrating on lock onto its very low observable stealth airframe, but additionally countering its digital warfare capabilities which proceed to be modernised. Iran has ordered quite a lot of property effectively optimised to detecting stealth plane, together with the Rezonans-NE radar system acquired in 2019, and the but to be delivered Su-35 fighter with wing root L-band AESA radars and a very massive Irbis-E main radar.
