The Israeli Air Force have established a new squadron for its F-35 aircraft, designated “Adir” in Israel.

The squadron is being established at an IAF airbase in the southern region of Israel, and its first commander will be Lt. Col. Yotam.

In 2003, Israel signed a formal letter of agreement worth almost $20 million to join the System Development and Demonstration effort for the F-35 as a “security cooperation participant”. Israel will buy 20 initial examples of the F-35A, with a total of 75 fighters expected.

A senior Israeli air force official stated, “the aircraft will be designated F-35I, as there will be unique Israeli features installed in them”. The United States initially refused to allow the integration of Israel’s own electronic warfare systems into the aircraft’s built-in electronic suite. However, Israel planned the introduction of a plug-and-play feature added to the main computer to allow for the use of Israeli electronics in an add-on fashion, and to fit its own external jamming pod.

In 2012 Lockheed Martin was awarded a contract to make changes to the first Israeli F-35s to allow the installation of Israeli electronic warfare equipment produced by Elbit Systems.

The establishment of an F-35 squadron is an important phase in the process of inducting the new aircraft intot he Israeli Air Force.

The first aircraft intended for IAF are already being built on the production line of Lockheed Martin.

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George has a degree in Cyber Security from Glasgow Caledonian University and has a keen interest in naval and cyber security matters and has appeared on national radio and television to discuss current events. George is on Twitter at @geoallison
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Ranjit Singh Gill
8 years ago

,aybe the first time the F-35 sees real action…

Ross Hendrie
8 years ago

Will they pass their knowledge of the F35 on to Argentina like they’ve done with other weapons the UK and Israel have in common. ?

Saul John Keirle
8 years ago

UK wouldn’t allow it I think we have the rights to some key components

Danny Winson
8 years ago

Allow what ?

Saul John Keirle
8 years ago

The US to transfer weapon blueprints to Argentina

Saul John Keirle
8 years ago

We have vetoed their attempts to buy Eurofighter I think before

Saul John Keirle
8 years ago

Tryed to tag the page but won’t let me they are usually pretty good at solving these issues

Simon Taylor
8 years ago

Argies eat your heart out!!! lol
They couldn’t even buy a Saab Gripen because it has British tech, no way in hell they’d get their hands on an F-35, even if they could afford it!!!