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| IAF F-35I 'Adir' at its unveiling in Texas |
12 December 2016: Ar 0700 EST/1400 IST today Israel will receive its first first two of the fifty F-35I 'Adir' ('Mighty') stealth fighter aircraft purchased from the United States of America. As I write the initial paragraph for this SITREP these aircraft are approximately 45 minutes from being 'wheels down' at Nevatim Air Base in southern Israel. Israel the first country outside of the U.S. to bring these truly awesome 5th Generation aircraft into operational service. Count this as a definitive blessing. Watch the F-35I video here.
There are several countries around the world who will eventually be flying the F-35A variant, but in all the world there is only one F-35I and Israel has it. Israel will be the first country in the world outside of the U.S. to have an operational F-35I 'Adir' squadron, and that will occur sometime late next year when the next nine aircraft are delivered to Israel.
13 December 2016: The uniqueness of the F-35I is mostly found in its avionics package and other technological goodies built by Israel's Elbit Systems and IAI. And that uniqueness will expand well beyond anything the Adir's designers imagined. The Israeli pilots who will fly this incredible aircraft will in the coming months develop operational procedures that other countries can only dream about. This aircraft will ensure that Israel will not only dominate the skies of the Middle East for the foreseeable future, but will enable it to take on combat missions it has thus far not been fully capable of executing as would be desirable with the F-16I Sufa and F-15I Ra'am. The F-35I 'Adir' will execute these missions at less cost and with less support which can be allocated to other fronts needing attention.
There are several countries around the world who will eventually be flying the F-35A variant, but in all the world there is only one F-35I and Israel has it. Israel will be the first country in the world outside of the U.S. to have an operational F-35I 'Adir' squadron, and that will occur sometime late next year when the next nine aircraft are delivered to Israel.
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| This bad bird guarantees Israel Air Force's domination of Mid-East skies |
13 December 2016: The uniqueness of the F-35I is mostly found in its avionics package and other technological goodies built by Israel's Elbit Systems and IAI. And that uniqueness will expand well beyond anything the Adir's designers imagined. The Israeli pilots who will fly this incredible aircraft will in the coming months develop operational procedures that other countries can only dream about. This aircraft will ensure that Israel will not only dominate the skies of the Middle East for the foreseeable future, but will enable it to take on combat missions it has thus far not been fully capable of executing as would be desirable with the F-16I Sufa and F-15I Ra'am. The F-35I 'Adir' will execute these missions at less cost and with less support which can be allocated to other fronts needing attention.
To quote the IAF Chief-of-Staff Brigadier General Tal Kalman, "The future is here." Yes sir, it is, and then some.
As we all know, Israel's F-35I Adir's landed last evening at nevatim Air Base in the Negev. They were flown in by American pilots. This morning Israeli pilots took to the skies over Israel in these aircraft. As stated in the comments section of this SITREP, Israel's pilots who will form the IAFs F-35I combat squadrons have been training on cutting-edge flight simulators for some time now. Today they simply hopped into the cockpit and flew victory laps in the skies over Israel. Watch the video above, courtesy of the IDF Spokesperson Office.
