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.
thermal passive tracking isn’t a new idea, the 1985 book “advanced technological warfare” goes into this means in some detail, and shows that jets like the f35 have like most combat jets today have a serious flaw i.e. they light of the sky with thermal exhaust emissions.
sorry friend, in an illegal war the word “ambushed” does not apply. you must be a youngon, remember vietnam? of course not….
globetrotter is correct. an ambush is “a surprise attack from a concealed position.”
american rev. war. the british considered american colonies british territory. during any conflict. the invading military can patrol and be “ambushed.” hopefully the conflict ends sooner than later. with less loss of life and damage to infrastructure.
going by todays washington post, trump is said to be considering winding down the us involvement. probably the first sensible decision he’s made in this war, as it finally got through thick his skull the us is on a hiding to nothing, and bibi will now have to go it alone.
this might be another propaganda trick to win time while preparing the ground invasion. if i was an iranian strategist i wouldn’t trust trump whatever he says.
any ground invasion would need more troops then what is currently available to trump, and so long as britain doesn’t get involved like what happed with vietnam trump can do a president johnson, as he’s stupid enough.
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.
netanjahu sits in germany berlin athlon hotel, first class living standards, far away from israel, which is burning and hammered big time nowadays. netanjahu is residing in berlin. athlon hotel berlin – residence evil – surrounded by nearly 700.000 muslim people – but none of all these muslims has enough guts, will or honour to go there and blow that scumback to shreds, let alone band together and storm the whole complex and kill that cockroach right away. sad, very sad he’s still alive.
i disagree. he’ll pay for his actions in due time romans 12:19
probably zoomed in from maralago
next time one will be shot down and the technology captured
we never saw it on the ground, nor pilot, anything at all. so maybe it is indeed destroyed.
landed somewhere in the arab gulf countries. apparently it was too damaged, it will be written off. have not seen photos. next time shooting one down and capturing the tech will be priceless
eye-ranians might check it out,then throw it in the skip bin
we own the sky over iran…heheheh
if the united states are using a-10 warthogs. anti-air defenses in iran are obviously limited.
where are their f-14’s built/bought before the islamic revolution? gone.
a-10’s got chewed up and got hit in the gulf war, which is why they had to go much higher then what they were designed for, in short they are over rated in a war against an opponent who can shoot back.
i’m with you. the a-10 is slow and not stealth. it is being used right now.
iranian air defenses are obviously limited, if a-10’s are being used.
drones have changed everything. which gulf war, 1 or 2?
“chewed up?” a-10’s lost in gulf war? six. gulf war ii? one.
they are over-rated, older weapons platforms. a replacement contract is already being bid on, by several companies.
gw1, yes, chewed up, more then one had battle damage, and as a result they were forced to fly higher then they are designed for, and it is not just me saying it, col macgregor has also said it, and the iraqi’s had nothing like the firepower that iran has, and the replacement was said to be the f-35.
a replacement has been in the books for 20 years. one of the suggested replacements is the f-35. that’s not confirmed. they’re still replacing the wings on the 150+ a-10’s until 2030. (wow that wing contract is 7 years old) good thing the a-10 has a lot more armor than the f-35. six were destroyed/ damaged beyond repair. gulf war ii is a completely different story. (lessons learned?)
michigan air national guard’s 127th wing are receiving twenty-one f-15/xe’s to replace their a-10 compliment.
after looking for military contracts. seems c.a.s. fighters are obsolete. the f-35 will never replace the a-10. air to surface missile range/accuracy increased. the u.s.a.f. replaced manned close air support w/ drones. or a an f-35. (but range, flight time, limited) jet powered u.a.v.s have a lingering flight time, low fuel and production cost. able to carry the same weapons, albeit slightly less payload. f-35’s and various drones will suffice for the u.s. military strategy of calling in c.a.s.
they are made of composite materials, it is written off already
anyone who can watch that video and think the pilot survived or that the aircraft made a landing at all is…mindbroken. it’s like showing a person a picture of an apple and them acting like it isn’t there.
the biggest ir sensor overload is just from the explosion itself, the video is cut off just too soon to see what happened to the plane itself.
assuming the aircraft was destroyed and saying everyone that doesn’t believe your assumption is mindbroken brings you nothing.
so the us lost 3 f-15e strike eagles and a kc-135 stratotanker aerial refueler to friendly fire? if this is the case then the us coordination with its allies is a bit of a shambles. the iranian admin is waiting for its manpads to be delivered from china. then it will be game on like never before.
at least the pilot nursed the bird home.
gosh, i guess no one told iran the f-35s were supposed to be invisible. 🤣
nobody ever claimed it was invisible.
most expensive warplane in the history of the universe, gets wrecked by a nation everybody claimed would be inferior.
the us and israel severely miscalculated their approach here.
netanjahu sits in germany berlin athlon hotel, first class living standards, first class
the penetration of iran continues…heheheh
agree. wipe it from the surface.
this can’t be true. iranian air defences have been totally obliterated, as greasy pete hesgeth explained, in between going off to get some more crusader tattoos. it must have been a fire in the laundry area.