The Israeli Air Force has achieved a historic success in the skies over Tehran. An F-35I “Adir” stealth aircraft shot down an Iranian Yak-130 fighter jet. This is the first known instance globally of a stealth fighter downing a manned combat aircraft in air-to-air combat.
The incident marks a new phase in modern air warfare. While F-35 jets have previously been used in operations against drones or missiles, a confirmed air-to-air kill of a manned aircraft by this type of stealth fighter had until now been considered only a theoretical scenario.
The engagement also holds historic significance for Israel itself. Since the air battles over Lebanon in the 1980s, when Israeli F-15 jets intercepted Syrian MiG aircraft, the Israeli Air Force had not shot down an enemy aircraft in direct air-to-air combat.
The Iranian Yak-130 is originally a Russian training aircraft but can also be used as a light combat jet. It serves, among other purposes, for training pilots on modern Russian fighters, but it can be armed with missiles and bombs. The deployment of such an aircraft over...
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