Israel receives three more F-35I Adir Joint Strike Fighters
March 16, 2025
The three new F-35s will join the IDF/AF’s 116th ‘Lions of the South’ Squadron, increasing the number of F-35 aircraft in Israeli service to 42 out of the initial order for 50. Three more will be delivered in about two months, and another three will be delivered later in 2025 with the last two of the existing order following in 2026. In 2023, Israel signed a deal for 25 additional F-35s with the US government and Lockheed Martin. These will be delivered from 2027 and will eventually increase the fleet to 75 aircraft, allowing the formation of a third frontline squadron. This will be the 117th ‘First Jet’ Squadron, which is currently the F-35I training unit, with no aircraft of its own. The 116th and 117th Squadrons are based at Nevatim, alongside the first F-35I unit, the 140th ‘Golden Eagle’ Squadron.
Uniquely, the Israel Air Force is allowed to install indigenous electronic warfare systems and to integrate its own weapons. The aircraft has “specific apertures … in the lower fuselage and leading edge” and has a plug-and-play feature added to the main computer to allow the use of Israeli electronics. Israel wanted the ability to make changes to the aircraft’s electronic warfare systems because it believed that the stealth of the F-35 in its current form would be ‘overcome’ in 5–10 years.
On 9 December 2016, it was reported that the first 19 Israeli aircraft would be delivered as standard F-35As, identical to those delivered to the United States Air Force. Only the remaining 31 were to be delivered as fully equipped F-35Is, with Israeli EW systems, air-to-air and air-to-ground munitions and even a new external fuel tank.
Israel received a dedicated, instrumented testbed aircraft to allow the development and integration of new weapons and systems, possibly including sovereign Mission Data loads. This aircraft (serial 924) is stationed with the 5601st Squadron at the Flight Test Centre at Tel Nof Airbase, and was recently used to developed an external JDAM carriage capability for Israel’s Adir aircraft. This is the only example of a testbed F-35 allowed to operate outside the United States.
Israel received its first pair of F-35Is on 12 December 2016, and had received nine aircraft by 6 December 2017, when it declared the fleet operational.
Soon afterwards, former Israel Air Force chief Major General Amir Eshel called the F-35 “game changing,” explaining that Israel had gathered more new intelligence during a single flight than other reconnaissance and intelligence gathering systems would have gathered in weeks.
Other F-35 operators may not have the same access to data as Israel does, and may not have the same experience.
