Britain’s top military commander, Admiral Tony Radkin, says Israel used radar-evading F-35 fighters in its retaliatory strikes against Iran in late October.
Radkin revealed that Israel used its F-35s to carry out massive strikes on October 26 against military sites across Iranincluding air defense systems and missile production facilities.
This appears to be the first confirmation by a Western government thatIsrael used its fifth generation aircraft in this operation. Following this attack, which was carried out in response to Iranian missile strikes, Israel reportedly used F-35s as well as air-based ballistic missiles.
In his speech at the Royal United Services Institute in London, Radkin also said: “Israel used more than 100 aircraft carrying less than 100 munitions and no aircraft came within 100 miles of the target in the first wave , which destroyed almost the entire Iranian air defense system.
He added: “These strikes destroyed Iran’s ability to produce ballistic missiles for at least a year. This is the power of fifth-generation aircraft combined with precise targeting and extraordinary intelligence,” he said.
Israeli officials have yet to respond to the remarks by Britain’s top military commander, but Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, in a speech to the Israeli Parliament two weeks ago about the results of the Iran operations, said that four air defense systems, part of the nuclear program, as well as a solid fuel production site for Iranian ballistic missiles, had been targeted.
The F-35 is an airplane single-engine multi-role built by the American defense company Lockheed Martin. There are several variants of this fighter, which made its first flight almost 20 years ago and is now used by a handful of countries around the world. Admiral Radkin added that this type of operation also showed “Israel’s disproportionate advantage in modern warfare methods”.
Israel became the first country to use the F-35 in combat in 2018. The country has about 40 F-35 aircraft, but that number is expected to increase to 75 in the coming years. The F-35 is Israel’s only fifth-generation aircraft. The country also has older American fighters, such as the F-15 and F-16.
Mr. Radkin praised the fifth-generation platform after Elon Musk criticized the F-35, which is the Pentagon’s most expensive weapons program but is considered by many to be the cornerstone of United States air power.
SpaceX CEO and criticized the plane last month on social media for its design and ignoring its stealth capabilities. While attacking him, aviation and military experts called on the controversial billionaire to remain silent on subjects for which he does not have specialist knowledge.
Additional sources • adaptation: Serge Duchêne
