The Israel Defense Forces on Thursday morning published the first footage of its F-35 “Adir” jet shooting down an Iranian YAK-130 the previous day, in the fifth-generation multirole strike stealth fighter’s first confirmed combat kill worldwide.
“The Israeli Air Force continues to strike dozens of infrastructure sites belonging to the Iranian terror regime and is operating to obtain aerial superiority over the skies of Tehran,” the IDF added in the statement.
Wednesday’s incident marked the first time an F-35 from any nation has downed a manned aircraft in combat. It was also the first Israeli dogfight with a manned enemy plane in more than 40 years.
The last such encounter reportedly occurred in 1985, when Israeli Air Force F-15s shot down two Syrian MiG-23s over Lebanon.
The IDF on Wednesday released the audio of a conversation between IAF commander Maj. Gen. Tomer Bar and the pilot, in which Bar tells him that “the historic shootdown over the Tehran skies is a testament to the strength of the Israeli Air Force and to your personal determination.”
