Tel Aviv: Israeli Air Force’s F-35 fighter aircraft (Adir) has shot down an Iranian YAK-130 fighter aircraft over Tehran. Sources say that this is the first such shootdown in the world.
According to the Israeli Defence Forces (IDF) spokesperson, on March 4 an IAF F-35 downed an Iranian YAK -130 of the Iranian Air Force.
In recent wars with Iran, the IAF F-35 has shot down armed drones launched by Iran to hit targets in Israel.
Israel’s unique F-35I “Adir” modifications were central to making the June 2025 long-range, heavily defended strikes on Iranian nuclear sites like Natanz, Fordow, and Isfahan, feasible and survivable.
Israel fielded extended-range solutions allowing F-35Is to spearhead strikes roughly 1,500 km from Israel while reducing dependence on the small, vulnerable tanker fleet.
Sources here were only ready to say that the F-35 operated by the IAF carry more fuel “in special tanks”. This in the non-stealth phase of the flight.
In the 2025 strikes, F-35Is conducted intensive SEAD, knocking out key air-defence radars and S-300 components to open corridors for large follow-on waves of F-15 and F-16 aircraft.
Israeli F-35Is are integrated with indigenous precision-guided munitions and targeting software, improving accuracy against hardened and underground facilities like Natanz and Khondab.
Israel turned the F-35I into a central sensor and C4I node: enhanced data-gathering, processing, and advanced datalinks allowed each jet to fuse intelligence and share targeting in real time with other fighters, ISR assets, and ground networks.
During Operation Rising Lion, this meant F-35I’s could silently map Iranian air defences and targets, then pass refined coordinates and threat data to non-stealth aircraft, multiplying the effectiveness of the ~200-aircraft strike package.
Israel’s ability to control F-35I software and integrate its own “app stack” and EW libraries meant the IAF could rapidly tailor threat databases and tactics specifically for Iranian radars and SAMs, without waiting for US baseline updates.
-The writer is an Israel-based freelance journalist. The views expressed are of the writer and do not necessarily reflect the views of Raksha Anirveda
