Yemen's Houthi Rebels have a vast supply of Iranian Cruise Missiles and have spent the last few weeks launching them at Western Ships in shipping lanes in the Red Sea.
On Oct 31st, an Israeli pilot in his F35-I stealth Fighter sent a message across the world which up until that Point Russia and China both thought was impossible.
It is the first Air to Air downing of a Cruise Missile by the F-35. This is impressive because of multiple things.
1. 2013 was the first year it was theorized that an Air to Air shot from fighters could kill a Cruise Missile. It was tested with an F16 but relied on 3 different radar systems (in aircraft, in naval vessels and ground-based radar) to Detect the launch, find the missile midflight, and to fire a heat seeking missile into the cruise missile to destroy it.
2. 2019 the US Air Force Theorized and tested that the same result could be done with the F16's latest targeting systems and that much cheaper and more prevalent laser guided missiles could be launched from an F16 to shoot down the cruise missiles. This still relied on multiple different radar input from multiple different radar locations on land and sea and air.
3. Oct 31st 2023. An Israeli pilot detects, tracks and successfully destroys an Iranian Cruise Missile fired from Yemen....relying 100% only on the capabilities of the radar equipment and tech in his F-35I fighter Jet without any other radar assistance and does so all while 100% retaining full stealth capabilities of the F35.
Link
On Oct 31st, an Israeli pilot in his F35-I stealth Fighter sent a message across the world which up until that Point Russia and China both thought was impossible.
It is the first Air to Air downing of a Cruise Missile by the F-35. This is impressive because of multiple things.
1. 2013 was the first year it was theorized that an Air to Air shot from fighters could kill a Cruise Missile. It was tested with an F16 but relied on 3 different radar systems (in aircraft, in naval vessels and ground-based radar) to Detect the launch, find the missile midflight, and to fire a heat seeking missile into the cruise missile to destroy it.
2. 2019 the US Air Force Theorized and tested that the same result could be done with the F16's latest targeting systems and that much cheaper and more prevalent laser guided missiles could be launched from an F16 to shoot down the cruise missiles. This still relied on multiple different radar input from multiple different radar locations on land and sea and air.
3. Oct 31st 2023. An Israeli pilot detects, tracks and successfully destroys an Iranian Cruise Missile fired from Yemen....relying 100% only on the capabilities of the radar equipment and tech in his F-35I fighter Jet without any other radar assistance and does so all while 100% retaining full stealth capabilities of the F35.
Link
