Confirmed: Israel Now Has Two Squadrons of Souped-Up F-35I Adir

Israel’s F-35i Adir.

Key point: Israel has a special version of the F-35, the F-35I Adir. This version is modified for the kind of warfare Israel often wages and can do things America’s stealth fighter cannot. Israel unveiled its second F-35i squadron to coincide with the new year at its Nevatim Airbase where its F-35s are based.

This is a milestone for Israel which received its first F-35s in 2016 and declared its first squadron operation in December 2017.

Israel’s F-35i is a modified version with unique features.

Israel is expected to acquire at least 50 of the Lockheed Martin jets amid rising tension with Iran. It fulfills Israel’s desire to have a qualitative military edge over adversaries throughout the Middle East.

The F-35i has been kept under wraps and extreme security by Israel; however, the country has been slowly illustrating the plane’s effectiveness.

In photos shown in May 2018 the F-35 was pictured flying over Beirut. At the same time, the plane was said to have carried out its first combat sorties from Israel.

Also, Israel recently hosted its Blue Flag exercise where its F-35s flew alongside Italian F-35s and US warplanes. Israel has said that its Air Force has carried out more than 1,000 airstrikes in Syria against Iranian targets over the last years and Israel has also hinted that it has struck Iranian-backed militias in Iraq.

The second squadron for Israel was announced in a ceremony Thursday, January 16 in a ceremony with Air Force Commander Major General Amikam Norkin.

The squadron will be labeled the 116th Squadron Lions of the South, alongside the first F-35i squadron dubbed Golden Eagle. The 116th Squadron has previously used F-16s and other planes going back more than 60 years. Re-established for the F-35 “Adir” planes it carries with it Israel’s long history of air superiority in the region and projecting Israeli power hundreds of miles from the country’s borders.

Lockheed’s Gary North, says that the F-35i is absolutely the weapon of choice against a high-threat environment. “Stealth allows the pilots to go wherever they have to go.”

Gary North, vice president for Customer Relations of Lockheed Martin, says that the F-35i is absolutely the weapon of choice against a high-threat environment. “Stealth allows the pilots to go wherever they have to go.”

Lockheed delivered 6 F-35s to Israel in 2019 and will continue delivering six per year through 2024. So far Israel has 30 of the jets and 30 more are coming in the next years. The next delivery is estimated for the summer of 2020. Lockheed said in December that it had delivered 134 F-35s worldwide and the 5th generation jet was not meeting the efficiencies and costs that the company’s target of $80 million an aircraft represents. There are now 490 F-35s operating in 21 bases around the world.

“From this moment, the 116th Squadron returns and becomes part of our strategic arm, part of our qualitative advantage over our enemies,” Norkin said at the ceremony.

Seth Frantzman, a Middle East Forum writing fellow, is the author of After ISIS: America, Iran and the Struggle for the Middle East (2019), op-ed editor of The Jerusalem Post, and founder of the Middle East Center for Reporting & Analysis.

A journalist and analyst concentrating on the Middle East, Seth J. Frantzman has a PhD from The Hebrew University of Jerusalem and was an assistant professor at Al-Quds University. He is the Oped Editor and an analyst on Middle East Affairs at The Jerusalem Post and his work has appeared at The National Interest, The Spectator, The Hill, National Review, The Moscow Times, and Rudaw. He is a frequent guest on radio and TV programs in the region and internationally, speaking on current developments in Syria, Iraq and elsewhere. As a correspondent and researcher has covered the war on ISIS in Iraq and security in Turkey, Egypt, the Palestinian Authority, Jordan, the UAE and eastern Europe.
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I recently witnessed something I haven’t seen in a long time. On Friday, August 16, 2024, a group of pro-Hamas activists packed up their signs and went home in the face of spirited and non-violent opposition from a coalition of pro-American Iranians and American Jews. The last time I saw anything like that happen was in 2006 or 2007, when I led a crowd of Israel supporters in chants in order to silence a heckler standing on the sidewalk near the town common in Amherst, Massachusetts. The ridicule was enough to prompt him and his fellow anti-Israel activists to walk away, as we cheered their departure. It was glorious.