The F35 fighter jet plane, also known as the Adir, on the Tarmac at Lockheed Martin in Fort Worth, Texas. (photo credit: LOCKHEED MARTIN / ALEXANDER H. GROVES)
Barbara Opall-Rome, Defense News: Syrian downing of F-16I begs question: Why didn’t Israel deploy F-35s?
TEL AVIV, Israel — As the Israeli Air Force continues to investigate the Feb. 10 loss of an F-16I to Syrian anti-aircraft fire, experts here are privately questioning why, given the operational circumstances that denied Israel the element of strategic surprise, it did not opt to deploy its newest front-line fighter: the stealthy F-35I.
In early December, the Air Force declared initial operational capability of the nine F-35s now in its possession. And from the aerial activity reported by residents near its home base at Nevatim, southern Israel, the aircraft are accruing significant flight time.
Yet none of the operational F-35s were part of the eight-aircraft force package tasked with destroying an Iranian command center in central Syria. The command center was reportedly operating the unmanned Shahed 171 drone that Israel says penetrated its airspace in the early morning of Feb. 10.
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WNU Editor: I guess the Israelis were not confident in using the aircraft for the mission that they were presented with this weekend when the order went out to strike targets in Syria.
4 comments:
It's obvious that the 8 F-16s that went on the first raid were already on alert, ready to go on a moment's notice. The aircraft used for the followup raids probably were pretty close to be ready as well. For whatever reasons, the F-35's were not.
Because they felt that the risk from Syrian air defences was next to zero.
They have hit them with impunity so often that they felt a A4 Skyhawk could do the job.
F16 was more than capable,was ready to go, and the surprise is that people see the loss of 1 aircraft as unacceptable or a shock!
We lost numerous aircraft in WW2. We lost numerous aircraft in Vietnam. War is tough business. If one only loses one aircraft, they should count themselves fortunate.
War is like an argument where people get killed!! The best way to win an argument is don't get in one!! The same applies to war. The best way to win is not to get into a war!!
Sometimes we must fight. When we must fight, we do all that we can to win or so we should. Why wasn't the F-35 used? I hypothesize based upon what I have seen and read that this plane is a dud that can never be effective. Unfortunately many people worked on this and the self images of important people are tied into these things. As such, they had to run out and buy them or so governments did. Now that they have them, when it comes time to make life and death decisions, they suddenly come face to face with the fact that the F-35 is not a good platform for a military aircraft and can't be used. War is the most serious of human endeavors and is not to be taken lightly!!
It would seem Syrian air defenses have improved. This is to be expected. They have been transformed into a battle hardened force by the continuous fighting. The tremendous support they have had from their allies has helped to. While unlikely, perhaps the Israelis were overconfident. Being overconfident in a war situation is never a good thing.
Agree, war is dirty , why one plane down seems a high price in exchange for the pain they dished out is puzzling.
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