Israel’s enhanced F-35s performed impressively in Iran war

Although the F-35 is a US-made aircraft, the only country to have used it in particularly large-scale operational activities is Israel.

The war in Iran was a show of force by Israel’s Air Force, which controlled the skies of Iran without incurring any casualties or damage by having its aircraft intercepted. The most prominent feature of the campaign was the Israeli variant of the F-35 – the Adir. Although it is a US-made aircraft, the only country to have used it in particularly large-scale operational activities is Israel. These attacks put the Air Force in a position where the US in general and Lockheed Martin in particular, which manufactures the aircraft, can now learn from Israel about their real-time use.

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Like all Israel Air Force aircraft, the Adir includes unique systems that Israel has installed, mainly in terms of software, intelligence, and integration with Israeli command and control systems. This allows, according to South American website ZM, to significantly reduce the time between target identification and neutralization. The website also reports that Israel has broken the preconceived limitations regarding the scope and rate of operation of the US fifth-generation aircraft.

While F-35 aircraft are considered to have significant maintenance needs and long time intervals between different missions, Israel has managed to drastically reduce this. This happened, according to ZM, by arranging the missions more efficiently, which allowed for more sorties for each aircraft. In this way, the Israel Air Force increased the pressure on the Iranians during a month and a half of fighting.

Published by Globes, Israel business news – en.globes.co.il – on April 16, 2026.

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