Illustrative image. (U.S. Air Force photo by Staff Sgt. Christopher Sommers)
The American F-35 Lightning II fighter jet hit by Iranian air defenses on March 19 made a “hard landing” and won’t be returning to service anytime soon, NPR’s Pentagon correspondent Tom Bowman has revealed.
The journalist also reported that the pilot is in stable condition with shrapnel wounds, which also indicate that the fighter jet took some serious damage.
Capt. Tim Hawkins, a spokesperson for United States Central Command had told CNN that the fifth-generation stealth jet was “flying a combat mission over Iran” when it was forced to make an emergency landing at an undisclosed American air base in the Middle East.
Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) confirmed that its air defenses hit the F-35 over the Islamic Republic’s central region, and said that the fighter jet was seriously damaged. The guards also released video footage taken from a ground-based imager thermal tracking system showing the moment the jet was hit.
The footage sparked speculations by analysts that the F-35 was ambushed using one of Iran’s short-range air defense systems, like the Azarakhsh, Majid or Tondar, to take down these drones, while flying over the Islamic Republic at a low altitude for some reason.
All three systems utilize anti-aircraft missiles equipped with onboard imaging infrared seekers. The Azarakhsh has an engagement range of ten kilometers, while the range of the Majid is limited to eight. Meanwhile, the Tondar, unveiled last year, is said to be capable of engaging targets as far as 15 kilometers away.
There were also rumors that Iran used components from its Russian-made S-300 PMU1 long-range air defense systems to hit the F-35.
The IRGC revealed in a statement, however, that newly-developed air defense systems were used to target the American fighter jet.
After the 12-day June war of last year, young guards specialists “were able to create new air defense systems and introduce them into the country’s integrated air defenses,” the IRGC pointed out, adding that the F-35 had been hit by those systems.
While a total crash is most commonly considered an aerial loss, an aircraft that is severely damaged by fire and forced to make an emergency landing may still be classified as “shot down” in tactical reporting. NPR’s latest report indicates that the Pentagon is trying to avoid admitting this, at least for the time being.
In any case, this was the first time the U.S. has admitted that Iranian air defenses managed to hit one of its fighter jets since the start of the American-Israeli war on the Islamic Republic nearly three weeks ago.
Both the U.S. and Israel are flying F-35s in the conflict. The fighter jet was designed for both air superiority and strike missions, it also has electronic warfare and intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance capabilities. It costs upwards of $100 million.
The U.S. has already acknowledged losing three U.S. Air Force F-15E Strike Eagles were lost, but these fell to Kuwaiti friendly fire. An Air Force KC-135 Stratotanker aerial refueler that was taking part in the war also crashed in Iraq, for reasons that remain unclear. Six other refuellers were reportedly damaged by an Iranian strike at an air base in Saudi Arabia.
In addition, the U.S. is said to have lost at least a dozen MQ-9 Reaper combat drones over the Islamic Republic and neighboring countries.
As the war drags on, U.S. aerial losses will likely grow, and with Iran clearly working to rebuild its air defenses, other American or Israeli fighter jets could get hit.
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“the footage sparked speculations by analysts that the f-35 was ambushed using one of iran’s short-range air defense systems.”
an f35 cannot be “ambushed” seeing how it is illegally operating in foreign territory. hopefully all of this american garbage is downed.
ambushed is the right word, because the iranian air defense positions had to wait silently (without active radar, only with thermal imagers and backscatter/background radiation receivers) for their target. passive target acquisition will probably be the new strategy, because active radar gets you killed.
apologies for the off-topic post, but lazar berman has just written in the times of israel that netanyahu’s press conference was virtual; there was no press in the room with him. are you thinking what i’m thinking?
if netanyahu is dead, then good. if he’s not dead but in hiding then that is also a win – those arrogant child raping and murdering satanists were gallivanting about with such pig headedness, and now reality has come to punch them in the face that they are not so invincible as they thought they were.
war is evil (that is, from the satanists who caused this war) but for iran it is necessary for survivial. i enjoy watching the satanists being punished.
probably zoomed in from maralago
next time one will be shot down and the technology captured